MoCO Home Invasions Update 1-20-08

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/23/AR2008012301922_pf.html

Crime Report

Thursday, January 24, 2008; GZ16

Montgomery County

These were among incidents recorded by the Montgomery County Police Department's Media Services Division, which may not have received complete reports from all six stations for today's Extra. For more information, call 240-773-5030.

REWARDS FOR INFORMATION

Crime Solvers of Montgomery County Inc., a nonprofit community organization, will pay up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and indictment in connection with these and any other felony crimes. Call the 24-hour hotline at 800-673-2777. Callers may remain anonymous.

District 1 Rockville Station

ROBBERIES

CRABBS BRANCH WAY,16100 block, 3:40 p.m. Jan. 7. Two men, one wearing a ski mask, entered a house, implied that they had a weapon, took property and fled. The alleged incident was not immediately reported to police.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

SCHUYLKILL RD.,1200 block, 4:06 p.m. Jan. 9. A residence was entered by force. Nothing was reported missing. An arrest was made.

District 2 Bethesda Station

PEEPING TOM INCIDENT

POOKS HILL RD.,8 p.m. Jan. 8. A man looked at a woman through a window at her residence. The man later was seen nearby.

District 3 Silver Spring Station

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

MANCHESTER RD.,9000 block, 11:40 a.m. to 12:05 p.m. A man and a companion entered a residence by force, took property and fled.

SKI LODGE DRIVE,9:45 a.m.. An attempt was made to enter a front door of a residence with keys. Two males in a orange-colored box truck were seen during the incident.

11TH AVE.,8500 block, 11:15 a.m. Jan. 7. Two men and a female attempted to enter a residence by force but fled empty-handed in a white four-door Chevy Impala.



District 4 Wheaton Station

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

GOOD HOPE RD.,14500 block, 2 p.m. Jan. 1. An attempt was made by two male youths to enter a residence forcibly through a garage. The intruders were interrupted and fled.

STONE HOUSE LANE,1 to 9 a.m. Jan. 4. An attempt was made to enter a residence by force.

Rockville

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

RICHARD MONTGOMERY DR.,200 block, 9:30 to 9:51 p.m. Dec. 22. A burglary occurred. Two North Potomac women, ages 21 and 19, were arrested and charged with second-degree burglary.

-- Compiled by LISA M. BOLTON and GERRI MARMER

Another take on the Crabbs Branch “robbery,” from the Gazette:
http://www.gazette.net/stories/012308/aspenew215029_32372.shtml

Home invasion

*On Jan. 7 at 3:40 p.m., in the 16100 block of Crabbs Branch Way in Derwood. Two men entered the house and one implied a weapon. They reportedly took property and left. The incident was not immediately reported to the police. One of the men is described as black, 19-23, 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet tall, 150-160 pounds, wearing a black ski mask, black vest, black shirt and jeans, black gloves. The second man is described as black, 19-25, 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 5 inches tall, 170-185 pounds, wearing a black baseball cap.

(That’s why I check multiple sources and list anything that appears to be a home invasion, regardless of how the police reportedly categorize the incident)


And the interruption of an evening burglary gets the homeowner killed; the same result in the end if he was home when the break-in began?

From the Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/24/AR2008012400264_pf.html

Police Investigate Fatal Shootings in Olney and Capitol Heights

By Debbi Wilgoren and Clarence Williams
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 24, 2008; 9:14 AM

A 74-year-old man was shot to death outside his home in Olney last night, Montgomery County police said, and Prince George's County police are investigating the fatal shooting of an unidentified man early this morning.

Gerrano James Fato was found dead just before 10 p.m. in the 3600 block of Martins Dairy Circle in Olney, police said in a statement. Fato, whose body was discovered in or near the two-car garage next to his residence, was the first person slain in Montgomery County this year.

Police said officers were called to the two-story brick house for a report of a possible burglary in progress. Investigators believe that Fato had just returned home when he was confronted by one or more people and shot.

Police did not say whether the house had been burglarized

They said no one was charged in the crime overnight, and the circumstances surrounding the shooting, including the description of the suspects, are still under investigation.

Contrast that with how the Gazette reported the incident:

http://www.gazette.net/stories/012408/montnew114652_32369.shtml

Olney man found dead outside his home Wednesday night
by Terri Hogan | Staff Writer

Police are investigating the fatal shooting of a 74-year-old Olney man at his home Wednesday night.

At approximately 9:57 p.m., police officers responded to the 3600 block of Martins Dairy Circle for a possible burglary in progress. When they arrived they found an adult male, identified as Gennaro James Fato, dead near the garage.

The preliminary investigation revealed that Fato had just arrived home when he was confronted and shot by unknown subjects, county police said.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting are under investigation.

The exact cause and manner of death will be confirmed after an autopsy is completed by the Medical Examiner’s Office.

The guy was “outside his home!?” The garage doesn’t count? The Post calls it like it is in THIS case, but soft-pedals the Crabbs Branch incident. That’s why these incidents take some analysis to get to the bottom of things; you really can’t rely on the face value of stories in the MSM.

It really IS all about CONTROL

Having undone 200 years of US Constitutional law, the NYC city council member who gutted whatever RKBA was left in that city isn't content with the amount of control he is exerting on New Yorkers.

One example on background:

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

A new gun control law authored by City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. and used as the basis of a lawsuit brought by the Bloomberg mayoral administration against several major gun manufacturers and distributors was given the go-ahead in Brooklyn federal court . . .

The package of legislation that gave rise to the city lawsuit first came before the council Public Safety Committee, of which Vallone is chair, last November.

One bill, Intro 365, created a “code of responsible conduct for gun dealers and manufacturers and makes it possible to hold them financially liable to a victim of gun violence or their family,” according to a news release issued by Vallone at the time.

Under Intro 365, a gun dealer would be liable for any injuries or death if the dealer fails to follow responsible sales practices such as selling only from a storefront location and not from a home, automobile or gun show, selling only one gun per individual within a 30-day period and maintaining records of all sales.

And another:
Massive anti-gunowner NYC legislation c.2005

City Hall, NY – City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, together with Council Members Peter Vallone, Jr., Chair of the Committee on Public Safety, David Yassky, Eva Moskowitz, Chair of the Committee on Education, announced the passage of a package of legislation that strengthens the City’s gun safety measures, including its existing assault weapons ban, and implements some of the strongest measures in the nation for promoting gun safety and reducing gun-related crimes and deaths.

Under the legislation, a gun dealer will be liable for any injuries or death if the dealer fails to follow responsible sales practices such as selling only from a storefront location and not from a home, automobile or gun show, selling only one gun per individual within a 30-day period, and maintaining records of all sales. A gun manufacturer will be liable if the manufacturer sold a weapon to a dealer, knowing the dealer had sold twenty or more crime guns during any 12-month period in the preceding five years.

The New York City assault weapons ban will be strengthened with the passage of Intro. 469-A by:
• Prohibiting any person who violates the assault weapons ban from obtaining a license to possess, purchase or sell a rifle or shotgun
• Increasing the civil penalty for violating the ban from $10,000 to $25,000
• Requiring the NYPD to inspect and update its list of assault weapons at least three times a year and
• Creating a new provision to allow that (at the discretion of the Police Commissioner) any person who violates the ban have all their guns seized.

Other bills passed today will limit the acquisition of a rifle or shotgun to one per ninety-day period, prohibit the sale of a rifle or shotgun to anyone under the age of twenty-one, and prohibit the sale of more than one rifle or shotgun to any person as part of the same sales transaction

SOOO the NYPD gets to declare what's an "Assault weapon," and if you happen to have one on the day of the decree, even if you legally owned it with the NYC BS red tape in order, you get jail time AND no further RKBA.

(Somehow, the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association actually ENDORSED this Vallone idiot)


Now he wants to "license and register" all air quality testing equipment in NYC. Yep, a DIY home radon test will get you jail time if Grade-A specimen PETER VALLONE, JR. (that's V-A-L-L-O-N-E) gets his way:

Village Voice

Runnin' Scared
NYPD Seeks an Air Monitor Crackdown for New Yorkers
A city councilman and the cops don't want you to have that Geiger counter without their permission

by Chris Thompson
January 15th, 2008 5:13 PM

Damn you, Osama bin Laden! Here's another rotten thing you've done to us: After 9/11, untold thousands of New Yorkers bought machines that detect traces of biological, chemical, and radiological weapons. But a lot of these machines didn't work right, and when they registered false alarms, the police had to spend millions of dollars chasing bad leads and throwing the public into a state of raw panic.

OK, none of that has actually happened. But Richard Falkenrath, the NYPD's deputy commissioner for counterterrorism, knows that it's just a matter of time. That's why he and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have asked the City Council to pass a law requiring anyone who wants to own such detectors to get a permit from the police first. And it's not just devices to detect weaponized anthrax that they want the power to control, but those that detect everything from industrial pollutants to asbestos in shoddy apartments. Want to test for pollution in low-income neighborhoods with high rates of childhood asthma? Gotta ask the cops for permission. Why? So you "will not lead to excessive false alarms and unwarranted anxiety," the first draft of the law states.

Last week, Falkenrath made his case for the new law before the City Council's Public Safety Committee, where Councilman Peter Vallone introduced the bill and chaired the hearing. Dozens of university researchers, public-health professionals, and environmental lawyers sat in the crowd, horrified by the prospect that if this law passes, their work detecting and warning the public about airborne pollutants will become next to impossible. But Falkenrath pressed on, saying that unless the police can determine who gets to look for nasty stuff floating in the air, the city would be paralyzed by fear.

"There are currently no guidelines regulating the private acquisition of biological, chemical, and radiological detectors," warned Falkenrath, adding that this law was suggested by officials within the Department of Homeland Security. "There are no consistent standards for the type of detectors used, no requirement that they be reported to the police department—or anyone else, for that matter—and no mechanism for coordinating these devices. . . . Our mutual goal is to prevent false alarms . . . by making sure we know where these detectors are located, and that they conform to standards of quality and reliability."

Vallone nodded his head, duly moved by Falkenrath's presentation. Nevertheless, he had a few concerns. When the Environmental Protection Agency promised that the air surrounding Ground Zero was safe, Vallone said, independent testers proved that such assurances were utterly false. Would these groups really have to get a permit before they started working? "It's a good question, and it has come up prior to this hearing," Falkenrath replied. "What I can assure you is that we will look extremely carefully at this issue of the independent groups, and get the opinion of the other city agencies on how to handle that, and craft an appropriate response." And if people use these detectors without a permit, Vallone asked, do we really have to put them in jail? Afraid so, Falkenrath answered.

Councilman John Liu was considerably less impressed. Why, he asked, should a community group like Asthma-Free School Zones have to tell anyone, much less the police department, that they're testing for air pollution? "We have no interest in regulating air-quality sensors around schools," Falkenrath promised. "That's not what this is about."

"But then can't we just get that in the legislation from the outset, as opposed to putting it in the regulations afterwards?" asked Liu.

That, said Falkenrath, was asking too much. "It becomes a very slippery slope, and it would then be possible for many other entities to sort of drive things through that loophole."

And Liu was just the start of the critics' parade. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said the bill aims to fix a problem that doesn't even exist. "I cannot think of evidence or events in our recent past involving false alarms that would create any urgency for this sweeping legislation," he said. "If Manhattanites have any anxiety related to this bill, it is the very marked anxiety that residents have about their air quality."

Dave Newman, an industrial hygienist for the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, claimed that under this law, the West Virginia air-quality experts who tested the air after 9/11 would have been a bunch of criminals. Dave Kotelchuck, deputy director of the New York/New Jersey Education and Research Center, pointed out the absurdity of having police regulate and permit research science. "Think about industrial-hygiene folks who are going from Boston to Atlanta to measure, and have atmospheric detectors," he said. "They land in LaGuardia and JFK. As soon as they land, because possession is a misdemeanor, they've committed a misdemeanor. They're not going to test in New York City; they're just travelling through. But possession, which is the way the law has stated it, alone is a misdemeanor—not use. Not attempting to make measurements—just possession. That is just unwarranted."

After an hour of this, poor Peter Vallone looked shell-shocked. He had planned to fast-track this legislation—in fact, the law was supposed to have been voted on last week—but that was before the critics had heard about it. As the opposition mounted, Vallone pulled the proposed legislation just before the meeting's end and agreed to give it a second look. "When I was first given a briefing only weeks ago, the potential problems did occur to me," he said in a later interview. "But the extent of the opposition, on such short notice, was a bit surprising."

But don't think Vallone has given up or anything. He and his colleagues will try to accommodate all the concerns when they redraft the bill, he said, but one way or another, the cops are going to have this new power. "No one's going to be completely happy in the end," Vallone said, "but I think the police department gave some very impressive testimony on the stand, and also expressed a willingness to listen to concerns." After all, if you let research scientists and community groups do their jobs, the terrorists will have already won.

I had to reprint the whole thing in case the Voice pulls it from the website.

Reason number one million and five why I am glad I am out of that rat-infested hell hole that is NYC.

MoCO Home Invasions update 1/17/08

WashPost

Crime Report

Thursday, January 17, 2008; GZ16

Montgomery County

These were among incidents recorded by the Montgomery County Police Department's Media Services Division, which might not have received complete reports from all six stations for today's Extra. For information, call 240-773-5030.

REWARDS FOR INFORMATION

Crime Solvers of Montgomery County Inc., a nonprofit community organization, will pay up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and indictment in connection with these and any other felony crimes. Call the 24-hour hotline at 800-673-2777. Callers may remain anonymous.

District 1 Rockville Station

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

BRAXFIELD CT.,12300 block, 10:50 p.m. Dec. 28. A man, 47, was arrested and charged with attempted residential burglary in connection with an incident at this location.

District 3 Silver Spring Station

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

AVENEL RD.,9600 block, 6:45 p.m. Dec. 31. A male entered a residence, then fled when confronted by an occupant.

CASTLE BLVD.,13900 block, 5:18 p.m. Dec. 31. A residence was entered. An 18-year-old man and a 16-year-old female were arrested.

DAMERON DR.,9900 block, 11 a.m. Dec. 26. A residence was entered by a male described as looking as though he were homeless.

STONEHILL DR.,10700 block, 12:20 a.m. Dec. 30. A residence was entered. A man was seen leaving the scene. Nothing was reported missing.

District 4 Wheaton Station

THEFTS/BREAK-INS
ELBY ST.,3900 block, 10:45 p.m. Dec. 29. A man and a woman forced their way into an occupied home. A male, 19, was arrested.

ENGLISH ORCHARD CR.,12600 block, 2:48 p.m. Dec. 31. A man who tried to enter a residence by force fled when confronted by an occupant.

GOOD HOPE RD.,1000 block, 4:55 p.m. Dec. 26. Four males trying to enter a residence fled when confronted by an occupant.



District 5 Germantown Station

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

LAURENTIA DR.,19800 block, 10 p.m. Jan. 1. An attempt was made to enter a residence.

-- Compiled by LISA M. BOLTON

Obama's big moment

As you all know, I am NO fan of Obama. Now that Richardson is out, I only have two choices: McCain and Edwards. The "Obama madness" that has apparently taken over the American electorate simply scares me - the last time people threw rational thought to the wind and blindly followed a charismatic leader got us Jonestown. The time before that got us the Holocaust(Shoah).

This comment over at Volokh Conspiracy cracked me up:

During his 2002 Senate campaign, Barack Obama delivered an anti-war speech in which he intimated that the Iraq campaign of the War was a plot cooked up by Karl Rove to distract Americans from poverty and the uninsured. Throw in a few UFO references and you’ve got either a Farrakhan speech or a Michael Moore film.

LOL!

MoCO Home Invasions Update 1-10-08

WashPost

Crime Report

Thursday, January 10, 2008; GZ16

Montgomery County

These were among incidents recorded by the Montgomery County Police Department's Media Services Division, which might not have received complete reports from all six stations for today's Extra. For information, call 240-773-5030.

District 1 Rockville Station

INDECENT EXPOSURE

ARBOR FORREST CT.,1 to 100 block, 3 to 4 a.m. Dec. 18. A man knocked on a female resident's window, and when she looked out, he exposed himself. He was last seen walking into nearby woods.

District 3 Silver Spring Station

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

LANSDALE CT.,3800 block, 4:20 p.m. Dec. 19. Two males entered a residence.

MCKNEW RD.,14900 block, 10:20 a.m. to noon Dec. 21. Two males entered a residence.

PINEY BRANCH RD.,9000 block, 2:10 p.m. Dec. 19. A residence was entered.

District 4 Wheaton Station

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

FRANKFORT DR.,4300 block, 7:20 p.m. Dec. 21. A male entered a residence through an unlocked front door, took property and fled.

District 5 Germantown Station

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

BRISTLECONE WAY,13200 block, Dec. 22. An attempt was made to enter a residence by breaking an exterior glass door. A person was seen jumping from a balcony of the residence.

Rockville

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

CONGRESSIONAL LANE,300 block, 6 p.m. Dec. 24 to 10 a.m. Dec. 25. An attempt was made to enter an apartment by someone who pried open several screens.

KIMBLEWICK RD.,1500 block, 6:04 to 8 p.m. Dec. 20. Two home theater controllers were stolen from a residence.

-- Compiled by LISA M. BOLTON

More imaginary ex-US school shootings

Yet another, in a country where gun ownership by "the people" is essentially banned. Gotta love that ingenuity - no gun? Make your own! Who would have thought of that one?!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7171014.stm

(India - school shooting results in one death)