Amtrak train shooting in Tucson, AZ

 

[VIDEO] If I have the time to do so I do like to watch Amtrak's Sunset Limited arrive in Tucson, Arizona. Usually like to catch the eastbound train stop in Tucson and it appears to be a very long layover ( about an hour). It appears that there is not only a stop to stretch your legs it's a servicing stop for the train.

Well, I didn't see the stream this morning and I'm glad I didn't. There was a shooting on the train and Virtual Railfan who operates the live webcam has since shuttered the feed for the time being. A DEA agent and a suspect were killed in the shooting about the train. What you see above is what you would've seen on the live webcam via Virtual Railfan.

I saw a condensed AP video that said this the shooting was as a result of a random search for contraband on board the train. The suspect was later found dead in an onboard lavatory on the train. [VIDEO]

I'm curious if they canceled the train so that the police can secure the crime scene and for Amtrak to later clean up the car for future service. I'm also curious if the train will remain in the Tucson area until the police is through with their work.

Looking forward to the Tucson feed being available again on YouTube especially. It was amazing last winter to see snowfall there in a desert city like Tucson, Arizona.

As always happy travels and be careful out there! 

TMZ: YouTuber Jake Paul raided by FBI

I just found out about this tonight, and confused Jake with is brother Logan who's a very prominent YouTuber who himself isn't a stranger to controversy. More on that in a minute, however, whats' going on with Jake Paul?

BREAKING: Jake Paul's Home Being Searched by FBI, Warrant Issuedhttps://t.co/O374YESUYg

— TMZ (@TMZ) August 5, 2020

3:06 PM PT -- It appears almost certain Wednesday's raids in Calabasas and Vegas have to do with Jake's Scottsdale arrest. Armani Izadi -- a longtime collaborator and former friend of Jake's -- owns the Vegas home that was raided by the FBI. Izadi was also arrested with Jake in Scottsdale.

2:08 PM PT -- The FBI has just played its hand -- partially -- and revealed the raid is somehow in connection with Jake getting arrested in Scottsdale during a George Floyd protest. The FBI tells TMZ, "The FBI is investigating allegations of criminal acts surrounding the incident at Scottsdale Fashion Square in May, 2020."

Jake was in the mall and arrested for trespass and was charged with a criminal misdemeanor, but the City Attorney has dropped the case -- it appears at the behest of the FBI -- and the more serious investigation has taken precedence.

I really don't follow Logan or Jake Paul's YouTube channels but it seems both of these young men have had some controversies as YouTubers. Indeed it was noted by TMZ that some of Jake Paul's stunts on YouTube had gotten him into trouble over the years.

As far as Logan Paul, Casey Neistat had a lengthy interview with him over two years ago which explains some aspects of his controversy. Logan paid a visit to a forest and recorded the remains of a person who committed suicide. I've never seen that video, however, Logan had to answer for that with Casey and its said that after that incident changed his strategy. [VIDEO]

I hope you enjoy yet another change of pace on this blog, although I'm sorry to have yet mentioned the name George Floyd once again on this blog. As you see from the above excerpt Jake Paul was arrested during a Floyd protest back in May.

Anyone in Chicago has Walter's WWE UK Title???

I found this article from Block Club Chi tonite as I was watching Monday Nite Raw. While I didn't first see this report here, Walter is the reigning defending WWE UK champion and he was in town for a wrestling show EVOLVE 142. EVOLVE is a promotion that has a relationship with WWE and many who are on the NXT roster have at one point wrestled for EVOLVE.

Anyway according to the article there have been a rash of vehicle break-ins in Chicago's Logan Park area. This is where Walter had been part of Evolve's event at the Logan Square Auditorium. Another wrestler's items were also stolen but I'm sure what authorities are looking for is Walter's UK championship in addition to his passport.

I've jokingly even tweeted asking if anyone in Chicago has Walter's belt and passport.

Who in Chicago stole @WalterAUT’s @WWE UK title and passport? #NXTUK#RAW https://t.co/W7uJ7w0nwA

— Levois J (@levois) December 10, 2019

Still I first heard about this from the YouTube channel Wrestlelamia on Sunday. It's among other stories and if you click video within the brackets it will take you directly to the story about Walter's missing title at about the 9 min. 55 sec. mark [VIDEO]

Here's a more direct story from the YouTube channel Heel By Nature published on Saturday [VIDEO]

Here's hoping they find the belt in time for next month's NXT UK Takeover Blackpool 2 when Walter as the reigning champion faces his challenger Joe Coffey.

The need to restore order according to "Sicario"

Saw the movie Sicario on Thursday. It both spooked and depressed me. It wasn't about the body count as much as it was the methods used by law enforcement or the criminal side to combat each other.

An FBI agent (portrayed by Emily Blunt) was assigned to essentially independent contractors to fight a Mexican drug cartel. She had been spooked and depressed by some of their methods. Basically these independent contractors seeks to reassert some form of order to the drug trade that hadn't existed in years.

Then I thought about Chicago with the issues of gun violence. I understand that violence in Mexico makes our violence seem like childsplay. But all the same our city streets are plagued by those who aren't much different than those cartel enforcers.

A few years ago, I attended a neighborhood meeting with a featured guest Chicago police chief Garry McCarthy and one of the questions came up involving these gang's hierarchy. If each of them has a top guy to maintain some type of order would we see the violence we've been seeing in Chicago these days.

McCarthy didn't want to hear that considering that in the past the number of murders in Chicago approached almost 1000/year. So he questioned having a leader like Larry Hoover would truly calm the violence in some parts of Chicago.

In watching Sicario this aspect of city violence came to mind. Do we need people just like those in these criminal groups to restore some form of law & order in the world?

Thinking about the past after a recent visit to a courthouse...

Looking outside of the courthouse

Recently, I was summoned to jury duty at the Cook County criminal courthouse when it hits me that many years before had been my first visit actual visit to this area. My 8th grade class at Bennett School took a field trip to the adjacent Cook County Jail where we were met by the inmates who's apparent goal was to scare us straight.

They made a unified statement telling us to think about it. Some of us smirked to which some of these inmates let us know that there was nothing funny about what they said. Some of us were passionate as whatever these inmates were saying struck a nerve. Some were in tears and others had an outburst.

Many of them tried to relate to us tales of what happened to put them in jail and some of my peers were finding themselves in the same situation anyway. In fact, I'm sure this experience probably saved a few of us that day. Unfortunately in spite of this trip, there is at least one classmate who was headed for trouble back then who is no longer walking among us today.

In fact that experience was the first time I realize that some of my peers were in gangs. It was a revelation that was only the beginning as I headed to one of the worst high schools in the city at the time. If I had no clue they were in a gang when I finally got to my assigned high school that fact would be thrown in my face.

Hopefully the youth of today don't have a trip such as this, one of the most unusual during my time in public school. Although perhaps a trip such as this should be reserved for the ones who are known to be trouble. Although if only we had a true crystal ball for the ones who's future are either dead & buried or constant trouble with the law.

If anything I'd rather hope we sent our youth to the courts for a tour of a courthouse. If only my grammar school had arranged for that back in the day instead of a trip to the jail. Perhaps someone in my class - especially myself - could've been inspired to be a lawyer or judge. Or the future 8th graders could be inspired to have a career in the law.

All the same, I'm satisfied only with having to make a rare trip to a Cook County Courthouse for jury duty. Thankfully no brushes with the law that would land me at either Cook County Jail or in a courtroom at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse. And I hope to keep it that way!

ABC News: Florida Cop Buys $100 in Groceries for Woman Caught Shoplifting Food

[VIDEO] I would consider this story a feel good story. People doing right by people even though they did wrong regardless we recognize why they're forced to do what they're doing. The police officer in question is defintiely who we need serving and protecting us.

When Miami-Dade Police Officer Vicki Thomas, 55, was dispatched to look into a shoplifting case at a Publix grocery store, a store manager led her to Jessica Robles.

“She was crying. I said, ‘Okay, what did she take?’ And he pointed to a grocery cart that was full of groceries,” Thomas told ABCNews.com. “I’ve been on [the job] 23 years, and I went, wow.”

“She just filled up the grocery cart and she just walked out, which shocked me and I asked her, ‘Why?’” Thomas recalled. “She said, ‘My children were hungry.’ And that immediately impacted me.”
....
“My grandchildren flashed before my eyes,” Thomas said. “I knew at that time what I was going to do. I knew I was going to buy her groceries.”

Thomas and her partner took the woman to their car, completed her paperwork and then Thomas asked her to wait a few minutes.

“I grabbed my debit card, ran back into the store and bought things that would sustain her for a week or so and when I walked out she saw that I had the cart of groceries and she burst out in tears and asked if she could hug me, which is kind of unusual for the suspect to be hugging the officer,” Thomas said with a laugh. “I let her hug me.”

Thomas made it clear that she technically arrested Robles. The woman had no priors for shoplifting and since the amount of goods she tried to steal amounted to just under $300, the cut-off for a misdemeanor, it was up to Thomas’ discretion whether to arrest her or give her the misdemeanor and get a promise to appear in court. She chose the latter.

The woman didn’t have a car, so Thomas loaded the $100 worth of groceries into the police car and the officers gave her a ride home.

Witness to lynching of Emmett Till has passed away

I just learned about another chapter in the sad case of Emmett Till. Until today I had little idea that there has been a witness to what happened to this teenaged boy in Money, Mississippi:

A key witness to the 1955 deadly beating of a black teen in Mississippi, a case that opened nation's eyes to the discrimination African Americans faced in the 50's, has died of intestinal bleeding, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Willie Louis, a Chicago resident, was 76 when he passed away from intestinal bleeding on July 18th, the newspaper reports.

After the trial in the murder of Emmett Till, Louis fled to Chicago in fear for his life, changed his name and slipped out of the public for nearly 50 years, according to the paper.

Louis was born in Greenwood, Miss., his wife, Juliet Luois, reportedly said he lived with his grandparents who worked as sharecroppers.

Mike Smalls, a teacher who has studied the landmark case, has told the Chicago Sun-Times that Louis was "one of the unsung civil rights heroes."

What happened to the young Mr. Till has still got to be the saddest case ever considered and unfortunately he wasn't going to get justice in 1950s Mississippi. And it took Mr. Lewis time to finally come out and tell his story as a witness to this unbelievable crime.

I would've like to see his interview on 60 Minutes!

#facepalm part 2

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

Well in response to the controversy that state Rep. Monique Davis stirred when she offered an unsubstantiated rumor that the police was behind some murders in her community. She discusses those comments made on a Detroit radio station in a press conference on Friday. Our local NBC affiliate has the video you see above. I'm sure there are still some who really see this as a farce.

An ya know other than the comments over at the CapFax, I should've known 2nd City Cop would have something to say as well.

Just learned of a shooting involving a Morehouse College student

As much as people are worked up about what happened with Trayvon Martin last year, sometimes I wish that people could get worked up for incidents such as this. This time it involves a Man of Morehouse and this article from the AJC notes that this was the third arrest in the murder:

A third person has been arrested in the shooting death of a Morehouse College student, the U.S. Marshals Service said Friday afternoon.

Anthony Finley, 23, was arrested Friday morning in Shiloh, about 75 miles southwest of Atlanta in Harris County, according to Supervisory Inspector Gavin Duffy with the Marshals.

Finley is third suspect in the June 13 shooting death of Joseph Gibbs. Gibbs, 23, died in his driver’s seat after being shot inside his car near the intersection of Parsons and Webster streets. He died near the campus of Morehouse College, where he was a few credit hours short of his diploma.

Atlanta police previously said the shooting appeared to be the result of a drug deal, though investigators have not released information about what led to the shooting.

Investigators believe after the first two arrests, Finley left the Atlanta area to stay with family member and elude capture. The case remains under investigation.

It's very disappointing that it was also reported that this crime was as a result of a drug deal. It's sad that a young man was cut down early once again, however, please remember that it's risky to be involved with drugs at all.

Morehouse athletes accused of rape

I'm not sure what to say to this. I remember when I was still attending school there, a march occurred where students from Spelman College marched on campus to draw attention to a sexual assault incident. My understanding of this case was that incident was proven to be false. In this incident with several alleged incident of sexual assault and with four Morehouse College students charged this is difficult to sweep under the rug! Hopefully all the necessary facts will come out and hopefully the ones who are innocent aren't forced to suffer if they had no part in these allegations!

Medal stolen from Tuskegee Airman will be replaced

These criminals are looking for a quick buck and don't care what the value of these objects are to the people who possess them. At least for this WW2 veteran he will get a replacement, but hopefully Gary, IN police will find the original one that was given to him!

Officials are working to replace a Congressional Gold Medal stolen from the home of a 93-year-old man who was one of the Tuskegee Airmen, a unit of black fighter pilots who served during World War II.

The medal was stolen from Quentin Smith's home in Gary during a burglary last summer, but Smith says he was reluctant to report the theft.

"As time went by, I became even ashamed to even announce it or ask about it until my police friend came over, and he said, 'Well, let's take a shot at it," Smith told WLS-Channel 7.

Smith, who spent much of the war as a flight instructor with the unit, was among about 300 surviving Tuskegee Airmen to receive the award in 2007.

Gary Police Sgt. Freddie Cook said Smith was his high school principal and he couldn't believe anyone could be so disrespectful.

"It broke my heart because you have not just a veteran but you also have a 93-year-old man," Cook said. "And somebody has the audacity to break into his home and take things.

“They ransacked his home. The medal was in a drawer in the bedroom. They took miscellaneous items, some jewelry and alcohol. He doesn’t care about any of it, he just wants the medal back,” he said.

City officials contacted U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky's office about getting a replacement medal for Cook and the congressman hopes to present it to him soon, said Visclosky's spokeswoman, Sarah Olson.

The image in the corner is an example of a Tuskegee Airman gold medal issued to surviving members of this WW2 Air Force unit on March 29, 2007!