TSA employee Baggage handler steals New York City cop’s gun from checked luggage. Probably something he’ll regret later in life.
Sixty-four things every geek should know how to do.
Showing extraordinary short-sightedness even for a government agency, FDA plans to ban electric cigarettes.
Cop puts neighbor’s belongings on Craigslist, tells takers first come, first served.
Michigan reporter who frequently writes about police misconduct convicted on two felony obstruction counts after attempting to photograph the aftermath of a fatal police chase. The police say she crossed a tape line and resisted arrest.
CIA paid two psychiatrists $1,000 per day to monitor and oversee waterboarding program. Problem is, the two had no actual interrogation experience. Once again shows that the best counter to Cheney’s theory that only the executive is competent enough to be entrusted with national security is the utter incompetence of the Bush/Cheney executive.
Pre-teen band does a mean Journey.
New York City issues list of “dangerous” dog breeds to be banned from public housing, including . . . Boston terriers? (Thanks to Dan Rothschild for the link.)
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on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 at 7:24 am by Radley Balko
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TheAgitator.com
From the reporter article, the jury foreman says “But you’ve got to go with the rules of law and the evidence that was presented [...] If you would go with your feelings, there might have been a different outcome on my part.”
Actually, it’s kinda’ your job to take both into account.
Baggage handlers aren’t TSA employees. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baggage_handler TSA screens bags, but the handlers are airline employees.
60 Minutes did a report years ago on baggage handlers and how they routinely go through checked baggage. I’ve never even seen a case actually make it into the news, though. That’s what makes this case unusual. Of course, this guy made the mistake of picking on a cops instead of an mere inconsequential civilian.
In the future I envision a special luggage tag designating when a bag belongs to law enforcement, so that baggage handlers (and TSA) will know which bags are fair game and which ones aren’t. They could use one universal symbol that goes on their cars, houses, and other property to warn other law enforcement off. It’s one thing that ordinary citizens be subject to this kind of treatment without having it happen to the good guys as well.
Kinda makes ya wonder what items of value could possibly be left by the time a bag makes it to the baggage handlers.
That’s exactly the paragraph that caught my eye as well. Feelings are something reserved only for other cops.
re the craigslist article- ‘Hickey, 29, could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Richard Carter, said Arlington police rules prohibit him or Hickey from discussing the allegations.’
it’ ironic how diligent the cops are in asserting THEIR 5th amendment rights…
I am definitely NOT defending the cop, but this woman who was victimized sounds like a work of art- I’m glad she’s not my neighbor.
‘”He put my life in danger, and my daughters,” she said. “I just ran out there. Those guys could have killed me. just a LITTLE dramatic…
without knowing any motives, she throws the race card- ‘”To me, it’s racial,” said Huwitt, who is black. Hickey is white. “You can look at it any other way, but that’s the way I look at it.”
I’m relieved to hear that the Arlington PD is conducting an internal investigation of the cop and that we all have the opportunity to follow police rules and respect his privacy until then (assuming they ever report the results). LOL!
The story says the cops and prosecutor are trying to find out if an offense has been committed. So, do law books have a little identifier on laws that apply to cops or are those few laws just spelled out on a little pamphlet separate from the huge mass of law that applies to us little people?
Surely, if the guy wasn’t a cop, they would already have saddled him with so many charges he would be begging for a plea bargain.
“Hickey, 29, could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Richard Carter, said Arlington police rules prohibit him or Hickey from discussing the allegations.”
Isn’t that cute?
Don’t you wish YOUR employer had cute little rules like that?
How well do you think that would work for you?
Boston Terrorists – the murder dog in a tux. ;)
Maybe NYC got the list from the police.
Sounds like he was thinking of the children. Actually, what other motive could he have had?
Geek FAIL:
SATA = Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, not just serial ATA
P2P = Peer-to-Peer, not person to person
Boston Terriers – it’s that Yankees-Red Sox thing.
(I grew up in quasi-public state [Mitchell-Lama] housing in the Bronx – any and all dogs were prohibited from the beginning, late 1960s.)
@David Chesler #12
So how would the Boston Housing Authority retaliate? Ban Standard Poodles? (I can’t think of a breed that has an eponymous reference to NY.)
Geek FAIL: Breaking the root password on Linux.
In fact, any modern version of unix requires logging in with the root password at the end of a single-user boot. You can try cracking the password by following the Windows solution: (1) booting another operating system (2) mounting the disk and (3) running a password cracker. This will be harder under Linux than under Windows — the Linux uses a stronger hash function. However, all this password cracking is pointless when you have physical access to the machine.
The real solution is to mount the drive and just change the password directly in /etc/shadow (UNIX) /var/db/shadow/hash/ (MacOS) or the Registry (windows).
From the Craigslist story:
“And he’s a police officer. How can he endanger people’s lives like that?”
I’d really like to have a long talk with this woman.
I know Radley didn’t declare this as an open thread but this really got to me. There isn’t much detail here and perhaps the reporter got something wrong. I am going to seek clarification. But WTF is a license checkpoint?
http://www.dailymail.com/policebrfs/200903311087
Note: Orchard Manor is a government housing project.
Banning eCigarettes is an entirely inexplicable yet entirely predictable move by the FDA. I got one last fall and quickly cut my cigarette consumption from about 30 to about 10 a day. I got out of the habit of using it, partly because the mini model I had was pretty unreliable, but I’ll definitely be using it again when it’s time to quit. I should get one of the bigger cigar ones before they ban them.
Aside: Now I know how the gun enthusiasts here feel ;)
The real solution is to mount the drive and just change the password directly in /etc/shadow (UNIX) /var/db/shadow/hash/ (MacOS) or the Registry (windows).
That’s awfully invasive. If you have physical access to the machine, just boot it with “init=/bin/sh”.
“Kinda makes ya wonder what items of value could possibly be left by the time a bag makes it to the baggage handlers.”
Hah. It is to laugh.
@#16, MacGregory
It’s something found in a police state, that’s what.
“My intuition is that there isn’t likely to be something you can charge him with,”
I’ll bet if you put up a Craigslist ad that said “Free weed and ludes at there would be charges right quick.
Damn HTML filter. There should be an “insert cop’s address here” between the words “at” and “there” in message 22.
#2 and #3, the TSA helps baggage thieves by requiring those flimsy “TSA approved” locks and even cutting them off when they’re too damn lazy to find the universal keys. At least before TSA you could put real locks on your baggage. No wonder regular travelers use FedEx or UPS to ship their luggage.
Well, I gotta give props to the kids doing Journey. That front kid did a mean Steve Perry, and the rest of them made me want to get out my Bic lighter for an encore.
Another geek fail: #2 recommends using a RAM defragger… how about you just reboot?
I am definitely NOT defending the cop, but this woman who was victimized sounds like a work of art- I’m glad she’s not my neighbor.
I think I know the kind of person you have in mind when you say that and, yes, it’s possible she’s like that. At the same time, it’s possible she’s telling the truth. We obviously don’t have enough facts to reach any conclusions as to the victim’s character, and it seems unfair to automatically assume she’s a female Al Sharpton. Yes, there are people who baselessly cry racism at the drop of a hat, but there are also people who are racist douchebags and would do what the victim alleges the cop did simply to engage in racist douchebaggery.
Man fuck the FDA. These are the same quacks that let the market get inundated with dangerous SSRIs, weight loss pills, addictive stimulants and pain relievers that give people fucking HEART ATTACKS, all while trying to ban over the counter multivitamins and herbal supplements. Fuck these clowns. Which one of them is on the take for Phillip Morris?
I suppose they’ll be banning bulldogs next. Must be something about short muzzle = ‘mean dog’ or some other stupidity. Eedjits…
A friend of mine has daughter who has an absolute pest of a Beantown Terri that will lick, lick, lick you until you pet it. Nice dog, but I don’t need the saliva bath…
If they ban electric cigarettes, sale of real cigarettes will go down. If those go down, so will tax revenues. When viewed from the agency’s perspective, this seems like a great idea in the short and long term. Bad for citizens, the public, health, and more, but good for government!
“Showing extraordinary short-sightedness even for a government agency, FDA plans to ban electric cigarettes.”
So what’s the excuse for this ban? Guh.
“New York City issues list of “dangerous” dog breeds to be banned from public housing, including . . . Boston terriers? (Thanks to Dan Rothschild for the link.)”
Well, they might as well go ahead and ban all terriers. That’s like the large majority of dog breeds.
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