Human Garbage and the Waco Massacre

[guido911]

So now we read that an armed sheriff's office deputy stood outside, armed, and did nothing to save any of the lives of those 17 killed in Florida. Images of patric unearthed after hearing this news...

[dbacksfan 2.0]

So is this your business Patric? Sounds right for you.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/09/us/oakland-police-denied-coffee-shop/index.html

[rebound]

So is this your business Patric? Sounds right for you.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/09/us/oakland-police-denied-coffee-shop/index.html

Holding aside the Patric comment, because "really?"...

While I think that shop is being very short-sighted, I like the way the police handled it.   It will be interesting to see how the business/social aspects of this play out.  Being radical and on the vanguard of an issue is (IMHO) very American, but once the point is made and the other side (whomever that is) tries to work with you, people expect some reciprocity.  Continuing to be radical for the sake of radical will eventually fail.

[patric]

Holding aside the Patric comment, because "really?"...

I did PM the moderator to consider removing those posts, but no reply.  Im sure the parties involved know better than to casually equate people with the deaths of children.

[TeeDub]

I did PM the moderator to consider removing those posts, but no reply.  Im sure the parties involved know better than to casually equate people with the deaths of children.

If I realized you were that sensitive I would have said something similar a while ago.   You do tend to cry about police every chance you get.

[patric]

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The Texas prosecutor pursuing charges against more than a hundred motorcyclists following a 2015 shootout that left nine bikers dead was ousted by voters in a primary election Tuesday after so far failing to convict anyone for the killings.


Local authorities in Texas absurdly overreached when they attempted to prosecute dozens of people who happened to be present at the site of a May 2015 shooting melee that broke out during a meeting of motorcycle clubs at a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco. Last month charges against more than a dozen of the 177 arrestees were dropped, and yesterday a judge ordered the McLennan County District Attorney's Office to stop distributing what his attorney calls "private, intimate sexual images" of former defendant Cody Ledbetter and his wife.
https://reason.com/blog/2018/03/29/das-in-waco-biker-case-ordered-to-stop-d


FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — One of three bikers indicted on murder charges Wednesday stemming from a chaotic 2015 shooting at a Texas restaurant is accused of killing a man who was also shot twice by police, according to ballistics evidence reviewed by The Associated Press.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cases-against-bikers-flounder-3-years-waco-shootout-180237177.html

[patric]

History will regard this as an important lesson in how not to step out of bounds for political gain.



Twin Peaks cases unravel as 3rd anniversary arrives

Supervised by Detective J.R. Price, a 40-year veteran police investigator, police gathered photos and contact information from the bikers. They had just released a whole busload of bikers, planning to summon them later as witnesses.

That was when District Attorney Abel Reyna walked in with his assistants and an audacious new game plan. Anyone associated with a motorcycle group would be arrested as members of "criminal street gangs," Reyna said.

No more bikers would be released, and many of the 177 arrested that night would spend the next several weeks jailed on million-dollar bonds.

It was a risky legal strategy, one that had never been tried on this scale: Throw a wide net around a complicated crime scene and charge everyone involved with engaging in organized criminal activity.

The failure of that strategy has become clear three years later, as prosecutors dismiss most of the cases, the district attorney prepares to exit and 130 bikers line up to sue McLennan County, alleging civil rights violations.

"The Twin Peaks case is like a corrupt politician looked at the Duke lacrosse case and said, 'Hold my beer. I think I can outdo Mike Nifong in the horrible-human-being-with-government-authority department'?"

https://www.wacotrib.com/news/twin-peaks-biker-shooting/twin-peaks-cases-unravel-as-rd-anniversary-arrives/article_40b236fa-055f-54fa-a1ac-e7a83591259c.html



"Twin Peaks cost more than I wanted to spend," he said. "It cost my reputation, my job, it cost a lot. I was the poster child for the national media. My face was everywhere. I had never been arrested in my life, never had a parking ticket, never had a moving violation. I feel there are no winners in this thing. There are absolutely no winners. Everybody lost in this thing and people are still paying for it and suffering. And it is still not done."

  --  Retired San Antonio police detective Marty Lewis

[heironymouspasparagus]

They should also be going after that ex-DA, Reyna.  He is personally responsible for most of the lies and BS surrounding this case.   Kind of a Tim Harris type clown!

[patric]

They should also be going after that ex-DA, Reyna.  He is personally responsible for most of the lies and BS surrounding this case.   Kind of a Tim Harris type clown!

WACO, Texas — All remaining criminal cases will be dismissed from the 2015 Twin Peaks biker shootout that left nine dead and 20 injured, prosecutors said Tuesday, ending a four-year prosecutorial fiasco that resulted in zero convictions.

McLennan County District Attorney Barry Johnson said he will dismiss the remaining 24 criminal cases to "end this nightmare that we have been dealing with in this county since May 17, 2015."

"It is my opinion as your district attorney that we are not able to prosecute any of those cases and reach our burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

Johnson inherited the Twin Peaks cases when he took office in January, and said he has spent 75 percent of his time since then with a team of prosecutors and investigators trying to determine how to resolve the remaining cases.

About 200 bikers were arrested after the shootout on identical charges of engaging in organized criminal activity and held on $1 million bonds each. Former McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna sought indictments against 155 bikers on those identical charges.

The special prosecutors appointed to handle four cases in which Reyna recused his office dismissed those cases by early this year. One of the prosecutors called Reyna's mass prosecution strategy a "harebrained scheme" that was "patently offensive."

For Houston attorney Paul Looney, Tuesday was a "very emotional day." He said he feels relieved because he sometimes felt that defense attorneys for the bikers were the only ones standing between them and a flawed system Looney says took away their lives, their liberties, their families and, in many cases, their livelihoods.

"The decision that was announced today was inevitable," Looney said. "The case has been dead for well over a year. It was killed by (former prosecutor) Michael Jarrett and Abel Reyna because they distorted evidence, they hid evidence, they falsified evidence, they lied to judges, they lied to the press, they lied to jurors."

"Maybe if law enforcement had stuck with the original plan to focus on individuals who might have been involved in the violence and let the rest of the motorcyclists go after being interviewed, things would have gone differently," Tittle said. "It's hard to imagine that turning the operation into a dragnet wasn't a major distraction for the investigation, not to mention a public that grew increasingly skeptical as this thing played out. All this for an ill-advised attempt to prove an imaginary conspiracy theory, which to this day there's not a shred of evidence to support."

"Today ends a sad chapter that, unfortunately, is three years too late in coming," Broden said. "Abel Reyna ruined lives, but I don't think that, even today, he appreciates the total havoc he caused."

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/trending/no-one-will-answer-for-texas-biker-shootout-that-left/article_5bd384a9-7673-52c6-a882-c8c79347bab5.html

[heironymouspasparagus]

WACO, Texas — All remaining criminal cases will be dismissed from the 2015 Twin Peaks biker shootout that left nine dead and 20 injured, prosecutors said Tuesday, ending a four-year prosecutorial fiasco that resulted in zero convictions.

McLennan County District Attorney Barry Johnson said he will dismiss the remaining 24 criminal cases to "end this nightmare that we have been dealing with in this county since May 17, 2015."

"It is my opinion as your district attorney that we are not able to prosecute any of those cases and reach our burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

Johnson inherited the Twin Peaks cases when he took office in January, and said he has spent 75 percent of his time since then with a team of prosecutors and investigators trying to determine how to resolve the remaining cases.

About 200 bikers were arrested after the shootout on identical charges of engaging in organized criminal activity and held on $1 million bonds each. Former McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna sought indictments against 155 bikers on those identical charges.

The special prosecutors appointed to handle four cases in which Reyna recused his office dismissed those cases by early this year. One of the prosecutors called Reyna's mass prosecution strategy a "harebrained scheme" that was "patently offensive."

For Houston attorney Paul Looney, Tuesday was a "very emotional day." He said he feels relieved because he sometimes felt that defense attorneys for the bikers were the only ones standing between them and a flawed system Looney says took away their lives, their liberties, their families and, in many cases, their livelihoods.

"The decision that was announced today was inevitable," Looney said. "The case has been dead for well over a year. It was killed by (former prosecutor) Michael Jarrett and Abel Reyna because they distorted evidence, they hid evidence, they falsified evidence, they lied to judges, they lied to the press, they lied to jurors."

"Maybe if law enforcement had stuck with the original plan to focus on individuals who might have been involved in the violence and let the rest of the motorcyclists go after being interviewed, things would have gone differently," Tittle said. "It's hard to imagine that turning the operation into a dragnet wasn't a major distraction for the investigation, not to mention a public that grew increasingly skeptical as this thing played out. All this for an ill-advised attempt to prove an imaginary conspiracy theory, which to this day there's not a shred of evidence to support."

"Today ends a sad chapter that, unfortunately, is three years too late in coming," Broden said. "Abel Reyna ruined lives, but I don't think that, even today, he appreciates the total havoc he caused."

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/trending/no-one-will-answer-for-texas-biker-shootout-that-left/article_5bd384a9-7673-52c6-a882-c8c79347bab5.html

Reyna knew exactly what he was doing.  He appreciates the results precisely.  That was his intent from the get-go.

Tim Harris kinda guy... actually, probably worse...!