SHOOTOUT…AMONG FEDERAL AGENTS IN LONG BEACH?
At first I thought I read the LA Times headline wrong. I’d noticed hours earlier Thursday night on my breaking news twitter feed that there’d just been a shootout in Long Beach with two possibly dead. Then the news changed to this:
A confrontation between federal law enforcement agents erupted in gunfire Thursday evening in Long Beach, leaving one dead and another seriously injured, authorities said.
The incident was sparked by an unspecified dispute between Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the Glenn M. Anderson Federal Building near the city’s oceanfront, according to law enforcement authorities.
The agency said in a statement Thursday night that one of its agents died at the scene and the other was in stable condition after the shooting. But the statement did not provide details about the incident.
Multiple law enforcement authorities told The Times the shooting involved a dispute between an agent and his supervisor.
The agent opened fire repeatedly on the male supervisor shortly before 6 p.m. in the building, according to the sources, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.
With the supervisor wounded, a third agent intervened and opened fire on the gunman, who was pronounced dead at the scene, according to law enforcement authorities. The male agent who killed the gunman was uninjured….
(NOTE: A scary and tragic story like this is exactly why, by the way, to most civilians, the idea of one law enforcement officer pointing a gun at the head of another law enforcement officer and mouthing threats, when it is widely acknowledged that the men are not friends but antagonists, does not seem like something that should be be flicked away as a “joke”—as was recently reported here and here.)
AND THEN THERE WAS THIS HORRIFIC STORY…
KIDNAPPED WOMAN DIES IN CRASH DURING POLICE PURSUIT
As the LA Times reported:
The victim of a reported kidnapping died Thursday after her alleged abductor crashed the sport utility vehicle he was driving head-on into another vehicle in Westlake as he was trying to flee police, authorities said.
Police were alerted to the kidnapping shortly after 8 a.m. when witnesses reported a woman inside a GMC Yukon frantically waving for help near the intersection of 6th Street and Westlake Avenue, said Cmdr. Andy Smith of the Los Angeles Police Department….blockquote>
AND THIS…
SHERIFF’S DEPUTY ARRESTED FOR LEWD ACTS AGAINST A CHILD….
The Times story opens as follows:
A veteran Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy has been arrested on suspicion of committing lewd acts with a child, police said Thursday night.
Oscar Rodriguez, who was assigned to the Marina del Rey station, allegedly committed the unspecified acts against the child while he was off duty, the Los Angeles Police Department said….
LA Times reporters Andrew Blankstein and Robert J. Lopez, among others, had a very busy night, Thursday night.
Or as Blankstein (@anblanx) tweeted around midnight:
This was the kind of news day in Los Angeles where every big story was so two hours ago #nightblog #sleepneeded
OH, AND I NEARLY FORGOT THIS…
(NOTE TO SELF: when straying with the Cessna into the President of the United States’ temporary no-fly zone, best to leave the giant bags of reefer at home.)
NOW IN THE NON-BREAKING NEWS, SLIGHTLY MORE WONKY REALM….
A NEW REPORT ON THE IRRATIONALITY OF “DIRECT FILING” PATTERNS ON JUVENILES IN VARIOUS CALIFORNIA COUNTIES
The power to direct file power, as it is called, was created in 2000 through Proposition 21, and allows prosecutors to circumvent the neutral decision-making authority of the juvenile court and unilaterally transfer certain kid offenders directly into adult jurisdiction. Now, prosecutors are threatening to direct file more if the state’s youth correctional facilities (DJF) are closed as the Governor proposes to do with his new budget.
Now a new study just released by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice reveals that a small number of California counties are responsible for the vast majority of adult court transfers and that the practice of funneling large numbers of kids into the adult system is unrelated to population or crime rates. ..
More on the report on next week.
AND FINALLY…
….ANTHONY SHAHID IN JAN 26, 2012 MOTHER JONES INTERVIEW…
“….it’s important as a reporter, a writer, a journalist, to try to restore humanity.”
Rest in peace. We are heartbroken.
Photo by Bob Chamberlain for the Los Angeles Times
This is why Sergeant Mark Moffett did not pull his gun!!!!!