Tag: Crime

Watch out for crosswalk sting today

Sac PD are out today in a sting to nab drivers who don’t stop for pedestrians at crosswalks:

Plainclothes officers will be attempting to cross between the white lines of crosswalks at different intersections in the city. Nearby, motorcycle officers and officers in patrol cars will be watching for motorists who don’t yield the right of way to the pedestrian cops.

Are plainclothes officers really needed for this? Couldn’t the pedestrians in this operation just be … pedestrians? I suppose it’s possible that would make it seem like they are “putting the public in danger,” though unless they are banning pedestrianism entirely until the scourge of right-of-way-refusal is smote from the land, they aren’t really doing anything either way, harms-way wise. Bottom line: stop for pedestrians.

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Bee starts water waster witch hunt

Bee water witch huntThe Sac Bee has a new “photo gallery” solicitation on the Web site — a “community reporting project,” they’re calling it — asking folks to send in photos (registration required to look at the photos) of “the city’s biggest water wasters.”

Include a brief description of the date and time the photo was taken and where it was taken, including street address and nearest cross street.

Sounds an awful lot like the Bee wants us to rat out our neighbors. I’m not sure where to start with this, but I think I’ll start with this: breaking the city’s watering rules is not synonymous with “wasting” water. One could easily follow the letter of the law in a wasteful way, just as one could water on off-days in a conservationist way.

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Where’s the Dope?

Ah, there it is...
Ah, there it is...
From the Sacramento Bee’s Crime Blog we learn that a CHP pilot spots marijuana garden in Folsom.

Authorities seized 96 marijuana plants worth more than $76,000 after a California Highway Patrol helicopter pilot spotted them growing along a popular bicycle and walking trail in Folsom. In a Thursday news release, Folsom police said the plants were found along the trail in the Sibley Street and Glenn Drive area. (See photo below supplied by the Folsom Police Department.)

Thanks, Folsom Police Department. I see it now!

DUI killer sues restaurant for serving him booze

In other crazy lawsuit news, convicted DUI manslaughterer Roberto Vellanoweth is suing the Camino Real Restaurant for serving him a “boozed-up mystery drink” that he claims caused the fatal crash in which he killed 4 people one horrifying and tragic day in South Land Park.

Obviously this is another insane what-is-this-world-coming-to lawsuit, but am I the only one who thinks it wouldn’t be a bad thing if somebody put that place out of business? In California there is really no excuse for bad Mexican food. The Yelpers back me up, using phrases like “HUGE mistake,” “thrown up,” “funny odor,” and “fat jerky was that brown ooze it had been swimming in” in their mostly 1-star reviews. If you’ve been to Camino Real Restaurant, you might wonder whether the mystery dosage in Vellanoweth’s drink was Hepatitis A. (This joke was brought to you by Mrs Cool.)

I want to buy a gun today

The sale of firearms locally is on the rise because of the budget.

“People are coming in and saying, ‘I want to buy a gun today,'” Barrett said. “We’re specifically seeing people say, ‘I want it because I’m not going to be able to get the protection that I need from the sheriff’s department.'”

This can’t miss. Luckily, folks will not be able to conceal these weapons …

Faced with the potential loss of more than 200 deputies due to budget cuts, McGinness said earlier this month that he may consider issuing more concealed weapons permits.

So, we have this going for us. From the comments area:

People have to be able to protect themselves and their families!!! Yes, case studies are proven about when honest, law abiding citizens are armed and ready that crime does go down.

I wonder if case studies would also prove that if folks installed a soft serve ice cream machine in their kitchen obesity would go down.

Because of the budget …

Have you noticed how everyone’s favorite new crutch phrase is “because of the budget” to justify/explain away everything that is going wrong in our state? It only recently surpassed “due to the recent economic downturn” and totally leap-frogged “and the worst has yet to come” to reach the top spot.

The best example I’ve seen lately is from this article about the potential for public urination in our city and county parks with the closure of restrooms.

“We’re going to have heavy cuts to our park staff and our park maintenance and also to our recreation,” Combs said. “We’ll be closing community centers and pools and children’s programs. All the decisions are difficult. We regret this, but right now that’s what we’re forced to do because of the budget.”

In case you heard about this story and thought, hey, what the heck, I think I will relieve myself in the rose garden at McKinley Park, you better think again. The Sacramento police are on to you:

Sacramento police Sgt. Norm Leong said park visitors will simply have to plan ahead if the bathrooms are closed. Anyone caught going to the bathroom in parks may be cited, he added.

Right, as long as nothing happens to the number of police officers patrolling these areas we should be safe from public pee’rs.

An issue that gets no props

A press release from the Elk Grove Police Department came across my desktop today:

ELK GROVE, CA – Earlier today, Elk Grove Police Officer Ali Khalil was arrested by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and served with a complaint alleging several felonies associated with mortgage-related financial transactions. None of the allegations were related to Officer Khalil’s official duties as an Elk Grove police officer. Officer Khalil, age 29, has been a member of the Elk Grove Police Department since 2006. Officer Khalil has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation, which is standard practice when an officer has been charged with a crime.

We obviously have no details at this point about the nature of the charges or the crime, but the role of mortgage predators brokers in the housing industry has played a huge factor in our economic meltdown. Some brokers were above board but many others were not. These unscrupulous individuals played a significant role in suckering banks and borrowers into bad mortgages. Many of these old brokers are now setting up shop as refinancing experts and mortgage assistance houses (word of advice: do your own research and deal with your lendor directly). They basically splashed everyone with mud and are now offering to take people to the cleaners.

Eyebrowraisingly, it seems police officers are not immune from felonies arising out of the housing industry (though this not to say that he is charged with crimes that he did while on duty – we don’t know). Also, this officer was charged by the FBI but the EG PD still has to do their own internal investigation, during which time the accused is still on paid leave (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

I, for one, would like to see a more aggressive effort by the state government to ban unscrupulous mortgage broker marriage. We need fewer of those people and the more we can do to stop them from procreating, the happier we’ll all be.

UPDATE 6/2: Further details available at the Bee. Thanks to the SacRag faithful for keeping me on my toes. Vigilance!

NorCal’s Newest Growth Industry, Chop-Shops

According to people who know stuff about things, we NorCal folks are a bit plagued by a rash of auto thefts. A recent study found the top ten cities in which your car is most likely to get stolen.

Good news: Sacramento wasn’t in the top ten.

Bad news: almost every surrounding city except Plymouth, was.

According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, Modesto has the highest rate of car thefts in any American city. Stockton comes in at #6. SF Bay area comes in at #7, and Fresno rounds out the list at #10. What can we take from these statistics? I say if you’re leaving Sacramento, take a train.

UPDATED: Media disconnect in the Tracy case

SEE UPDATE BELOW. Obviously we want the media to publicize Amber Alerts and report on murders. But there seems to be a disconnect between the media’s tendency to tout its own policies on not reporting certain details of crimes and its tendency to run for days with details of other crimes. What has happened in Tracy is completely devastating. When a story starts its life as an Amber Alert, but ends up being a story about a grisly murder, shouldn’t the media not want to have the victim’s face and name and the unspeakable details about what happened to her plastered all over the front page and sold as the top story?

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Showing your Arbuckle

With the overwhelmingly lukewarm response to previous editions of Make Us Laugh, I thought it would be fun to throw this one out there. Comment with your witty snark and we’ll let you know who made us laugh.

Man Arrested for Exposing Himself Every Wednesday

An Arbuckle man has been arrested for allegedly exposing and fondling himself in public every Wednesday for at least the last several weeks, according to the Colusa County Sheriff’s Department…They say he’d stand at a window inside his home and exposed and fondle himself. The undercover officer arrested Sweet after witnessing his alleged crimes.

Shocker, I know, there’s a typo in the article.