DL Open Thread Tuesday, March 23, 2021
How is it that these white mass murders are always taken alive, but if you are black and get caught sleeping in a car….?
Kevin Daly, who owns a restaurant and brewery in the shopping center, said he was inside, readying his business for reopening after the pandemic when his manager, in a bank across the parking lot, heard the gunshots.
“Someone saw the livestream, so we pulled it up and locked ourselves in the office,” he said, the start of an hourslong ordeal in which he and his employees periodically opened the door to shelter traumatized witnesses to the shooting.
“The guy just went in there and started shooting,” he said. “People were just in shock. A lot of them had seen bodies and carnage.”
Mr. Daly said he didn’t know who the victims were “and I don’t know what happened in the grocery store, but I do know that it is easier to get a gun in this state than it is to get a driver’s license or to vote.”
“And I’m angry,” he said. “And all I know is, this should have stopped after Columbine. It should have stopped after Sandy Hook. And I’m angry that we are still discussing this.”
Biden’s Big Package
The NYT reports on Biden’s big infrastructure package. I say, just do it through reconciliation and do-not give any money to states where the majority of the congressional delegation votes no. Fuck the GOP.
WASHINGTON — President Biden’s economic advisers are pulling together a sweeping $3 trillion package to boost the economy, reduce carbon emissions and narrow economic inequality, beginning with a giant infrastructure plan that may be financed in part through tax increases on corporations and the rich.
After months of internal debate, Mr. Biden’s advisers are expected to present the spending proposal to the president and congressional leaders this week, as well as begin outreach to industry and labor groups. On Monday, Mr. Biden’s national climate adviser, Gina McCarthy, discussed his infrastructure plans — and their role in combating climate change — in a meeting with oil and gas industry executives.
34 Jobs!
Are you sitting down? 34 jobs!!! WOO HOO!! I’ll bet they got $34 million from the top secret economic development committee. We may never know.
Re: The border “crisis” being caused by the arrival of more than 100 unaccompanied minors a day.
Since most of the media can’t count to 20 without removing their shoes and socks, allow me to point out that “more than 100” is how many people are ahead of you in the security-check line at any American airport.
Crisis my ass.
Yup. With no royal family to cover- Crisis sells ads.
Home front news – got my stimuli money. Now Need to be photographed buying caviar to drive CHris Coons into a full blown austerity panic.
Immigration, another day, another manufactured crisis for the media to harp on. How about the daily gun slaughter and ten dead in Colorado instead? Could we have an intense focus on that instead? Thought not. On a lighter note my conservative brother in California made the point that his state depends on immigrants for many things. But then again he’s rational.
NRA and pro-gun nuts had just successfully overturned Boulder’s ban on assault weapons:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/23/guns-boulder-shooting-assault-weapons-ban/
An excerpt:
““We tried to protect our city,” she told The Washington Post. “It’s so tragic to see the legislation struck down, and days later, to have our city experience exactly what we were trying to prevent.”
Rachel Friend, a city council member, made a similar observation on Twitter, adding she was “heartsick and angry and mostly so, so sad.”
But the Colorado State Shooting Association, one of the plaintiffs that sued Boulder over the assault weapons ban, rejected that sentiment, arguing in a statement that “emotional sensationalism” about gun laws would cloud remembrance of the victims.
“There will be a time for the debate on gun laws. There will be a time for the discussion on motives. There will be a time for a conversation on how this could have been prevented,” the group said in a statement. “But today is not the time.”
Of course not. It never is to these assholes.
Confiscate all military-style weapons in civilian hands. All of them. If Australia — a country chock-a-block with macho assholes — could do it, so can we.
Wilmington cop lied about weapon used in shooting of city teen:
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2021/03/23/wilmington-cop-shot-teen-indicted-lying-evidence-tampering/6956702002/
An excerpt, for the unsubscribed:
“A former Wilmington Police officer faces multiple felony charges after prosecutors said he tampered with and lied about the gun he used to shoot an unarmed 18-year-old in 2019.
A New Castle County Grand Jury indicted James MacColl on felony counts of tampering with physical evidence and making a false statement to law enforcement. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of official misconduct.
Prosecutors claim that MacColl, who at the time had worked for more than a decade with Wilmington Police, changed the barrel of his department-issued handgun at some point before he shot 18-year-old Yahim Harris in Feb. 2019.
But MacColl’s indictment states that after the shooting, and knowing the gun would be confiscated, MacColl put the factory barrel back on the gun and lied to investigators about modifying the .40 caliber handgun.”
Can somebody provide me with a righteous reason why he would switch the barrels and then lie about it?
Because he used the gun in other murders?
Unlikely; the barrel is not the only thing he would need to change in that case. Perhaps an alternate barrel is needed to accommodate other unauthorized modifications, like different sighting systems or even a silencer. Someone in police/gun culture would probably be able to explain it, but probably won’t post it here since the subject is a cop.
changing the barrel will changing the rifling but unless he also modified the firing pin/stiker the markings on the casing would be the same. So unless he cleans his brass the main reason would be to have the rifling not match the bullet and if there is no casing to match it would look like a different gun or maybe to match a gun signature in the system