Archive for January 25th, 2013

Gun show watch.

Friday, January 25th, 2013

Austin’s Saxet show is this weekend. I plan to be there Saturday. Feel free to say “Hi” if you see me: I’ll be wearing my snazzy Gunwalker t-shirt.

In Houston, a company called High Caliber Gun & Knife Shows runs gun shows in the George R. Brown Convention Center. They’re also having a show this weekend. (You may remember High Caliber from High Caliber v. Houston, aka “the city of Houston got their ass whipped and had to pay High Caliber’s legal fees”.)

Gun shows have security, like pretty much any public gathering; rock concert, biker rally, gun show. Gun shows do not generally hire the Hells Angels to provide security; in Austin, Saxet uses APD officers (who I believe are off-duty, but in uniform). In Houston, High Caliber uses off-duty Houston police officers.

At least they did until this past week.

[Mary] Bean [co-owner of High Caliber – DB] said that off-duty Houston police officers who have provided security for her shows for many years were barred this week from performing their normal duties, such as tying patrons’ guns so they can’t be dry-fired, ensuring guns are unloaded, and walking the aisles, providing a presence at the show.

Why?

Houston Police Officers Union president Ray Hunt said the officers were prevented from carrying out these duties because they violate department policies regarding off-duty jobs. The gun show’s rules are that people can’t bring a concealed handgun into the show, but state law allows patrons to do so. That makes the show’s decision a house rule, he said, and HPD policy prohibits its officers from enforcing house rules.

This whole “state law” versus “house rule” thing doesn’t pass the smell test with me. Texas state concealed carry law allows a business to ban the carrying of concealed handguns, if they post a sign to that effect at the entrance or entrances. The sign has to meet specific wording and legibility requirements; we in Texas colloquially refer to them as “30.06 signs” after the relevant section of Texas law.

I haven’t been to a High Caliber show in Houston, but the Saxet shows in Austin have 30.06 signs posted at the entrances; I assume High Caliber does as well, which to me puts things firmly into the “state law” versus “house rule” category.

“It’s not that they were suspended for any reason for danger to the public or danger to the officers. It was simply that they were being asked to enforce a rule that is not a law, and we can’t do that,” Hunt said. “When it’s brought to our attention that house rules are being enforced, we make sure that that policy is changed. If the officer can’t enforce house rules, why would the vendor want to pay them?”

I wonder if off-duty police officers enforce “rules” that are not “laws” in other venues? For example, do off-duty police officers confiscate cameras and recording devices at rock concerts?

According to the HouChron, High Caliber has managed to get security from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, which doesn’t seem to have a problem with the whole “house rules” thing.

Quoth Union chief Hunt again:

“A police officer may not think they’re enforcing a house rule by checking a gun and tying it, but I can tell you — and I’m on the labor side — that I would not want an officer handling a large number of guns handed to them by citizens who may or may not have had adequate training on that gun,” he said. “I’m betting something was brought to someone’s attention.”

Sounds like “only ones syndrome” again, doesn’t it? Also makes me wonder: I don’t see any indication that any of the officers working security complained. I wonder if somebody – perhaps on the city council or in the mayor’s office – put some pressure on Union chief Hunt. I don’t have any evidence for that yet; this is purely speculative.

Posted in Clippings, Guns | 5 Comments »

Your Austin nightclub update for January 25, 2013.

Friday, January 25th, 2013

I noted previously that two of the Yassine brothers were convicted of money laundering in the Austin nightclub case. (Previoisly.)

They were sentenced today. Hussein Ali Yassine, aka “Mike”, “founder and president of Yassine Enterprises”, was sentenced to twelve years and seven months in federal prison. Hadi Yassine, his brother, got a five year sentence. Both will also serve three years on probation after they are released.

In addition, “Mike”, Hadi, and their other brother Mohammed Ali (aka “Steve”) are not US citizens, so there is “a chance” that they will be deported after serving their time. (“Steve”, as you may recall, took a plea deal last year and was sentenced to a year in prison.)

Posted in Clippings, Law | 1 Comment »

Random notes: January 25, 2013.

Friday, January 25th, 2013

Today’s WP contains a sad and touching profile of Priscilla Lollar.

Priscilla Lollar was the mother of Richard Lollar. Richard Lollar and Jacinth Baker were the two men who were stabbed to death after the Super Bowl in 2000; this is the case in which Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis pled guilty to obstruction of justice.

…considering the District of Columbia’s ban on assault weapons, where did they get the guns and how did they get them in the building?

There are many reasons why wrongful convictions are bad. Obviously, innocent people do time in prison, time that can’t be given back to them. But also, if the wrong person is convicted, that means a murderer is still out in public, free to commit other crimes.

Today’s example of this comes from the NYT, with a followup on the Baithe Diop/Denise Raymond murder cases I mentioned yesterday.

The NYT goes into a little more background on the prosecution’s original theory of the case: Ms. Raymond’s former boyfriend was an alleged drug dealer, who was charged in the case with “conspiracy to commit murder”. The prosecution claimed that he and his drug dealing buddies were afraid Ms. Raymond was going to go to the police about their drug operation. Ms. Raymond was apparently being cultivated because, as a FedEx executive, the drug dealers figured she could help them get drugs through the FedEx system. (The boyfriend was acquitted: “testimony from two key witnesses was discredited by defense evidence”, and he died five years ago.)

The NYT article doesn’t make it clear why the prosecution believed the Diop and Raymond cases were tied together. According to the original NYT article on the reversals in the Diop conviction, the prosecution believed Diop’s killing “was part of an elaborate plot to distract the police from the intended crime: the theft of $50,000 worth of cocaine from a passenger in Mr. Diop’s car.” But it isn’t clear who that passenger was, or how Ms. Raymond’s murder was a part of this plot.

I was able to dig up the original “How To Solve a Murder” article on Google Books, and it doesn’t make things much more clear; if I understand the theory of the crime correctly, the cocaine heist was an inside job, and Ms. Raymond’s boyfriend was supposedly ordered to kill her “as some kind of twisted atonement” for making his bosses in the drug ring angry. In retrospect, the whole case seems to have had holes in it you could drive a cab through.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law, Sports | Comments Closed

Art (Acevedo), damn it! watch. (#P of a series)

Friday, January 25th, 2013

Today’s Austin Police Department suspension is brought to you by former Sergeant William Lefebvre.

Sgt. William Lefebvre, called to assist in an incident at a shopping center on Aug. 8, used the bottom of his foot to move a suspect further into a patrol car, striking him in the chest, [Police Chief Art] Acevedo said.

Chief Acevedo says “That tactic was not justified or objectively reasonable and (he) failed to report it in a timely manner”.

Okay. What does “failed to report in a timely manner” mean?

Acevedo said that Lefebvre reported the incident the same day, but upon review, it was determined that he could have been more accurate and timely.

Former sergeant Lefebvre will be suspended for 60 days (“The memo didn’t say whether Lefebvre will be paid during the suspension.”) and has agreed to a demotion to corporal detective. Post suspension, he will be “on probation” for a year. “If he commits a similar act of misconduct, he would be indefinitely suspended without the right to appeal.”

It sounds like this was a negotiated deal with the city, and that Lefebvre will not be appealing his discipline. However, the Statesman does not explicitly state this.

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Banana republicans followup: January 25, 2013.

Friday, January 25th, 2013

Back in August, I discussed the case of Omar Bradley, former mayor of Compton. Bradley was convicted of “misappropriation of public funds” in 2004, but had his conviction overturned last year and is awaiting retrial.

But Bradley isn’t just sitting around waiting for the retrial. He’s keeping busy.

“How?” you ask.

He’s running for mayor of Compton.

Per the LAT, both his retrial and the election are scheduled for the same month (April),  which “sets up the potential for Bradley to win office and then quickly lose it again if he is convicted a second time on charges of misappropriation of public funds”.

Also interesting: Bradley is one of twelve people running against the current mayor.

Among the challengers are former child star Rodney Allen Rippy, civil rights attorney and former Black Panther B. Kwaku Duren, former Compton City Clerk Charles Davis, and longtime City Hall critics William Kemp and Lynn Boone.

Rodney Allen Rippy? Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in ages.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed