So Much For Security

Here’s one that made me go “Hmmm”:

Cocaine trafficker, 28, was caught by police after moaning on encrypted phone network Encrochat about how Covid lockdown was affecting his international drug dealing business.

Now I don’t care about this asshole — he got 16 years, and that’s good — but I can’t help wondering…

No, I’m not wondering.  It’s clear that all this encryption protection that the public imagines they’re getting is no more than a figleaf.

And yes I know, EncroChat was nothing more than a criminal enterprise facilitator — but remember that it’s the Fuzz who decides what exactly constitutes a “criminal enterprise”, and if they could penetrate EncroChat, they could have — and may already have — penetrated any encryption system or software.

Caveat emptor.

Yes, It Has

Here’s a headline which made me giggle like a little girl:

Rittenhouse Verdict Has Leftist Rioters Worried: “It fundamentally changed
the culture of protest”

The punchline is equally delicious:

This is still America, much to their chagrin, and in the absence of police protection and intervention, the American people can and will protect themselves and their fellow citizens from lawless mobs bent on mayhem, violence, and destruction.

Remove or incapacitate police, and yes, Americans can and will step up to lawfully fill that vacuum. Who couldn’t see that coming?

Read the whole article, and don’t have a mouthful of coffee while doing so.

Justified

Count me very much among the “social media users”:

Commenters on social media are calling a Washington state father a “hero” in response to reports that he allegedly rescued his daughter from sex traffickers and later killed the man he believed responsible for selling his daughter into sex slavery.

All I can hope for is that he killed the sumbitch only after a little creative use of some woodworking tools.

I probably would have, in his shoes.

Overachiever

Apparently, the cops have caught the asshole who ran an SUV into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wis.:

“Brooks is a career criminal with multiple priors and was released from jail two days prior to the incident after posting a $1,000 bail for three misdemeanors and two felonies. He has a history of resisting arrest, obstruction, battery, statutory sexual seduction, strangulation and suffocation, property destruction, illegal firearm possession, bail jumping, domestic violence, drug related charges and is a registered sex offender.”

I’m not too sure that calling him an asshole is sufficiently descriptive, but then again, “someone who needs killing” will probably get me into trouble.

The real asshole in this little escapade is the fucking judge who allowed him out on bail, and Asshole #1a is the public defense attorney who motivated it.

Letter To Alec

Here’s an interesting headline:

The sequence of events on set that led to Alec Baldwin accidentally shooting and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins remains unclear but there are a handful of options.

…none of which are relevant.

Look, I know that Alec Baldwin has the mental capacity of a bag of cement, so all that follows below is wasted on him.  But here are the simple rules which, had they been followed in sequence,  would have prevented Baldwin from shooting an innocent bystander.  They are universally known to us serious gun owners as “Cooper’s Rules” (after the late and much-missed Col. Jeff Cooper):

RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED

Had Baldwin known anything at all about guns (he clearly doesn’t), he would have checked to see whether the round loaded in the gun was live or a blank (they look completely different from each other).

RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY

Had Baldwin not been a complete tit (he is), he would also have made sure that the gun was pointed in a direction where no one was standing, or else told whoever was standing in front of him to get out of the line of fire, even if he had made sure the gun was loaded only with a blank.

Cooper’s last two rules are not relevant to this tragic story, but nevertheless, here they are:

RULE III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET

RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET

And that’s all that need be said.

Another Blood-Curdler

As Glenn Reynolds puts it so often, putting your kids into the public school system is tantamount to child abuse.  Read this horrorshow:

The cops had the apartment building manager knock on the family’s door. Jade answered and the cops told her she shouldn’t be home alone. Jade started crying and asked to call her dad, McMurry says. But the cops wouldn’t allow it. They did allow her to change into warmer clothes, since they were going to take her away for an interrogation.

When McMurry returned from Kuwait, she faced two felony charges of child abandonment. She turned herself in and spent 19 hours in jail before being released on bail.

Long story short, almost a year later—she was suspended without pay the entire time— McMurry’s case came to trial. Brunner claimed to be on a prearranged vacation. McMurry, eager to get the case heard, allowed the trial to proceed without him.

The trial took four days. The jury deliberated for five minutes and found McMurry not guilty.

Unlike many stories of this type, this one ends well:  the mother is suing the shit out of the Stasi cops, and a judge has denied them “qualified immunity” (whereby cops can do whatever the fuck they want without fear of penalty).

But read the whole thing, keeping all guns out of reach.