Showing posts with label political violence. Show all posts
Perspective: A Lesson In Political Violence From Lebanon
Lebanon's government collapsed Wednesday after Hezbollah and its allies resigned from the Cabinet in a dispute with Western-backed factions over upcoming indictments in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
A U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others is widely expected to name members of the Shiite militant group, which many fear could re-ignite sectarian violence that has erupted repeatedly in the tiny nation.
Hezbollah's walkout ushers in the country's worst political crisis since 2008 in one of the most volatile corners of the Middle East.
Climate of H8: SF Bay Area Slowly Going Mad From Political Rhetoric
A former Los Angeles deputy city attorney has been charged with assaulting police with a pole after creating a scene at San Francisco International Airport in which she vandalized a coffee kiosk, authorities say.
Angela West, 50, a Harvard Law School graduate, was seen by airport police officers smashing merchandise, milk containers and other food items with a 3-foot-long metal pole at a Peet's Coffee kiosk at SFO on Christmas Eve, said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
When officers tried to speak to her, West "raged" at them and began swinging the pole, which she had taken from a janitor's cart, Wagstaffe said.
An officer had to use a chair to fend off at least 10 blows, authorities said. West then calmed down and sat in a booth, only to start throwing items at the officers, Wagstaffe said.
When the officers tried to arrest her, she kicked one of them in the groin, Wagstaffe said. After being subdued, West shouted out that she was a lesbian and that the officers "should stop trying to have sex with her," the prosecutor said.
West was taken to a hospital and held in a psychiatric ward for a week, Wagstaffe said.
Two of the three men killed over the weekend in a shootout at a San Jose club intended to kidnap the bar's owner, and the third opened fire on the assailants before they could carry out the plan, police say.
The violence at the Mexicali Club on Oakland Road began at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday when Antonio Barraza Allon, 31, and Manuel Rodriguez Barraza, 29, both of Salinas, and a third man came into the bar looking for the owner, police said.
The three wanted to kidnap the owner over an alleged debt, said Officer Jose Garcia, a San Jose police spokesman.
But the three were confronted by a man inside the bar, Manuel Morales Mendosa, 26, who was armed with gun, Garcia said.
A shootout ensued, and Allon and Mendosa were killed, Garcia said. Barraza was also shot and managed to stumble two blocks to a Ford Explorer, where his body was found the next morning.
Another man hit by bullets during the gun battle, Humberto Velasquez Sanchez, 28, of San Lorenzo, was listed in stable condition at a hospital.
A bank employee and another man have been arrested for allegedly staging a bank robbery in San Jose, police said.
Jose Everardo Luna, a teller at the Bank of America at 565 W. Capitol Expressway, pretended to be robbed by Steven Anthony Davis at about 10:15 a.m. Dec. 28, said Officer Jose Garcia, a police spokesman.
Davis handed Luna a demand note, police said, and Luna turned over an undisclosed amount of cash.
Police investigated the case as an actual robbery until Bank of America security personnel determined that Luna had failed to follow certain procedures during holdups, police said without elaborating.
Think Armageddon is near and don't know what to do? Well, you might some take some pointers from Lark Ann Freeman of Fremont, who thought she could be among the survivors by hopping into a U-Haul and conning four men into the vehicle with the promises of money and cigarettes, authorities say.
Freeman, 36, believed the world was going to end in one big earthquake on New Year's Day, said Marin County Deputy District Attorney Linda Witong.
So Freeman got into a U-Haul truck and headed toward Marin County, but not before she kidnapped a 74-year-old man after luring him into the rental truck by telling him she would get him cigarettes in Berkeley, authorities said.
At some point, Freeman picked up three more men and told them she was hiring them as movers, Witong said. She locked them into the back of the U-Haul, prosecutors say.
Everyone ended up at Fort Baker near Sausalito, where Freeman ran a red light at a one-way tunnel in front of a U.S. Park Police car. She led officers on a chase to Rodeo Cove, where she was stopped.
She told police she was affiliated with "Save the World," authorities said.
The Final Final: the Last Word on the Tuscon Shooting
Republicans in Congress eager to vote to repeal President Barack Obama’s health-care law face a delicate task in tempering their rhetoric after the Arizona shooting rampage that killed six people and critically injured U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords.
House Republicans delayed a vote planned for tomorrow on rolling back the health-care overhaul while Giffords, a 40-year- old Democrat, is being treated in a Tucson hospital. When they turn back to the health law Republicans will focus on moderating their tone, strategists said, in contrast with some lawmakers’ stronger language from last year’s campaign.
“There’s going to be a natural cautiousness,” said pollster David Winston, who advises House Republican leaders. “Members are thinking through how they can have an effective debate without it being disagreeable.”
House Speaker John Boehner’s spokesman said yesterday the Ohio Republican’s priority is to keep the discourse steady and civil.
“This terrible tragedy requires that congressional leaders act in a responsible, nonpartisan way on behalf of members, staff, the institution, and most of all, the American people,” said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.
Provacateur: Fred Phelps Weighs In on the Gifford Shooting
The Left does some truly despicable things in this world, but this is a new low for Democrats.
Former three-time Democrat gubernatorial candidate Fred Phelps Jr. (commonly called just “Fred Phelps”) and his Westboro Hate Group have announced plans to disrupt the funeral of 9 year-old shooting victim Christina Greene.
Christina was murdered by Jared Lee Loughner yesterday in his assassination attempt on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The little girl was born on September 11th, 2001, so her parents have been cursed with a horrific trifecta of high profile trauma: their daughter born on the worst day in our generations’ lives, their daughter murdered in an assassination attempt on a member of Congress, and Democrat Fred Phelps aiming his hate machine at their family during their daughter’s funeral.
Democrat Phelps (an enormous supporter of Al Gore’s, though the media conveniently leaves off that he’s a Democrat and instead likes to imply he’s a conservative, which he is not…he’s a Democrat, and ran repeatedly on the Democrat ticket unsuccessfully for several elected offices) disrupted the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards last month, because it is what he does.
On a day when a family is hurt the most it could possibly imagine being hurt, this horrible man makes things just a little worse for all involved.
The Parallax View: the Gifford Shooting
A gunman targeted Rep. Gabrielle Giffords as she met with constituents outside a busy supermarket Saturday, wounding the Democrat and killing Arizona's chief federal judge and five others in an attack that left Americans questioning whether divisive politics had pushed the suspect over the edge.
The assassination attempt left the three-term congresswoman in critical condition after a bullet passed through her head. A shaken President Barack Obama called the attack "a tragedy for our entire country."
Giffords, 40, is a moderate Democrat who narrowly won re-election in November against a tea party candidate who sought to throw her from office over her support of the health care law. Anger over her position became violent at times, with her Tucson office vandalized after the House passed the overhaul last March and someone showing up at a recent gathering with a weapon.
Police say the shooter was in custody, and was identified by people familiar with the investigation as Jared Loughner, 22. U.S. officials who provided his name to the AP spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release it publicly.
His motivation was not immediately known, but Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik described him as mentally unstable and possibly acting with an accomplice.
As the shooter was a declared admirer of the Communist Manifesto and had a thing for flag burning, I think it's safe to say that he's not a right winger. Still, just as there has been a rush to judgment against "us," there has also been rush to judge this guy as little more than crazy. Sorry, but this was an attempted political assassination by a guy who went through a certain amount of effort to position himself to do maximum damage. God knows why he would target an inoffensive moderate like Gifford. Then again, moderates often take it on the chin in immoderate times. Mr. Manifesto also managed to kill a federal judge, a 9-year old girl and three bystanders in their seventies. In ways both large and small, America really is under assault.
I'm not going to point to one person on the right or the left and say that their "rhetoric" caused this. But, I will say that the last 10 years have seen a mounting fury first on the Left against the supposed war crimes of George Bush and then on the Right (and among many independents) who suddenly saw the country veer crazily from a financial crisis to a pell mell socialization of the banking, automotive and health care industries. And now, we have a resurgent Republican Party that is taking on to itself the task of dismantling at least a portion of the sprawling federal government, something you can expect will be fought tooth and nail by the people who earn their livelihoods from it.
We can only hope that violence remains a matter of rhetoric and hyperbole, but after today, I can only say: let's be careful out there.
