Crime Fighting With Obama!

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeOk, I had a bad day yesterday. After buying a Bluetooth phone adapter for my iPhone at the Apple store in San Francisco yesterday, I was off to buy some khakis. Since I have been loosing weight, my wife tells me I got no ass left and need some smaller pants. So I got on the bus, show the drive my MUNI pass, put it back in my wallet, put my wallet in my back pocket, buttoned the pocket (it has a “safety” flap, like a prescription pill bottle that only kids can open), and grabbed a seat. When I sat down I noticed the familiar lump in my pocket is gone! The pocket was unbuttoned and the wallet was history. It was that fast. When I got on the bus there were about seven 20-something males crowding the front aisle in the bus. Passengers had to push their way through to grab a seat. Passing through that throng was when I lost the wallet. The group immediately got off the bus and it was over. They didn’t get much - $20 or $30 and a bus pass. The bank was very wonderful to deal with. They made everything easy and even brought me something to drink and guided me to the nearest police station. (Mad props to Officer Santana!) Because of where and how they tried to use the debit cards later, the police told me this appears to be gang-related, probably MS13 by their operational pattern. That was a lot of work to get so little out of it. But still, what a pain in the ass.

Europe - The New Terror Front? What I said to the BBC.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge On occasion, I am a guest on the BBC program World Have Your Say and yesterday the topic was Michael Chertoff's statements about how Europe was the next platform for terrorists. Chertoff wants the EU to adopt America's Patriot Act and other civil right stripping laws and programs. Suffice it to say, Europe is cheesed-off. The question put to the guests was "Should Americans be afraid of Europe?" My response was "no." I think, and most guests agreed, Europe isn't the problem, the Bush Administration is. Chances are I will go my entire life without ever meeting someone from Al Qaeda, however there is a big chance I will be confronted by someone from MS13 - a street gang primarily populated by Hispanics. During the last month in North Carolina there have been four murders by MS13 members for their ritualized initiations. Their modus operandi is to approach an random bystander and ask them for directions, then shoot them in the face. MS13 is not the only criminal street gang operating in America - we still have the Crips, the Bloods, and the White Aryan Resistance. Scholars have published study after study pointing to crime being an intersection of poverty and lack of education opportunity. You solve these two things with social programs, not with a War on Drugs or a War on Terror. MS13, the KKK and Al Qaeda are all progenies of the same problem. However, that problem is not Europe.