Convenience Store Crime Goes Hilariously Off The Rails

The video in this post is so ridiculous I at first I thought it was fake. A set up.

Watch the video at the bottom of this post to find out why the shelves
in this Alberta convenience store are slightly bent. 

But apparently, it's real.

As Deadspin described it: 

"A man and a woman visited the King Street Reddi Mart in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada.... and the convenience store owner eventually called police on the suspicion that the man had been using a stolen credit card. 

By the time the couple left the store, they had lost a shirt and shoe, gained a deep understanding of the store's layout, and earned themselves a smorgasbord of charges: Using a stolen credit card, resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, attempting to disarm a police office, resisting arrest from someone aiding the police, among others."

You'll see at about two minutes into the video why the CBC reports that some store shelves are now "slightly bent." It is one of many highlights in this video.

Exciting day at the convenience store, I guess.

Watch:

Three White Terrorists Planned Car Bombing At Kansas Mosque, Apartment Complex, Say Authorities

These three guys were arrested in Kansas for plotting
 a terrorist attack on an apartment complex where
many Somali immigrants live.

I get why people are worried about ISIS - inspired terrorist attacks in the United States.

They do happen, as we saw last year in San Bernardino and this year in Orlando, Florida.

Now, if we haven't done so already, apparently we need to start worrying about white terrorists attacking Muslims in this nation.

Yeah, it keeps getting worse.

The New York Daily News reports that the FBI has arrested three white guys for conspiring to blow up an apartment complex where many Somali immigrants live. The guys involved in the plot apparently call themselves "The Crusaders."

The apartment complex the three targeted has a mosque where many of the Somalis frequently gather for prayers.

According to the Daily News:

"Curtis Allen, 49, Gavin Wright, 49, and Patrick Stein, 47, were charged Friday with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, according to the Department of Justice's national security division. The Crusaders call Muslims "cockroaches" and they had discussed brutal attacks on Muslims for months, federal prosecutors said.

FBI agents working on tips from an undercover informant said the three men planned to blow up four car bombs at the Garden City apartments. Allen, Wright and Stein hoped the attack on the 120-resident complex would 'wake people up,' the feds said."

I guess ironically,  "The Crusaders" MO was much the same as ISIS. Do a splashy terrorist attack to demoralize their enemies and more importantly, inspire like-minded idiots to do more of the same.

I obviously can't hold Donald Trump directly responsible for what these idiots planned, but I do blame him for doing a large part in creating a hostile culture that might have helped inspire these three idiots. 

Frighteningly, the "Crusaders" came pretty close to being able to carry out their plan. A paid informant helped squash the plot, though.

More from The New York Daily News:

"Allen, Wright, Stein and the informant met multiple times at Wright's business, the G&G Mobile Home Center in Liberal (Kansas). At one meeting in July, he used Google Maps to drop pins labeled 'cockroaches' on locations of potential victims, according to the complaint.

They talked about attacking targets such as city or county meetings, landlords who rent to Muslim refugees, organizations that assist Muslim refugees, a mall frequented by Muslims and Garden City's African Community Center, investigators said. They decided on the W. Mary St. apartment complex in August, according to the complaint."

Police also found a metric ton (!!) of explosives and detonators with these guys.

Glad that they got these guys. but here's the fear:

The climate is so toxic now, that if Trump loses the Presidential election, which seems quite likely now, his most ignorant, racist, hostile, misogynistic fans will erupt in extreme anger.

They already are, fueled by some pretty violent rhetoric, especially around the meme that the election is supposedly "rigged" if Hillary Clinton wins.

Even people in supposedly authority are using this rhetoric. Sheriff David Clarke, a Trump surrogate, tweeted it's "pitchforks and torches time" if Hillary is elected because she would "rig" the election.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, who should know better, is also accusing people of "rigging" the election.

Trump's true believers in the crowd are even worse.

Dan Bowman, a 50-year-old contractor told the Boston Globe at a Trump rally this week: "If she's (Clinton) in office, I hope we can start a coup. She should be in prison or shot. That's how I feel about it.....We're going to have a revolution and take them out of office if that's what it takes. There's going to be a lot of bloodshed. But that's what it's going to take... I would do whatever I can for my country."

That is, if "doing whatever he can for his country" is committing treason, I guess.

There's quite a few people like Bowman, who, fired up by Trump's incredibly irresponsible and wrong speech, won't accept an election, won't accept democracy.

Some people will act violently, I fear.

Ah yes, just what we need, domestic terrorists by people who are in a snit because the majority of us rejected a spoiled rich kid jerk/moron for president.

Don't you love people like Donald Trump who insist on making things worse for all of us?

Pastors, 90 Year Old Guy Arrested For Despicable Crime: They Fed Homeless People.

Arnold Abbott, 90, being arrested for the terrible crime
of feeding homeless people.  

Fort Lauderdale, Florida sure doesn't like homeless people all that much.  

Nor does it like people who try to help them.

Case in point: Fort Lauderdale Police arrested two pastors and a 90 year old man who defied a new city ordinance against feeding homeless people. The trio belong to a homeless advocacy group called Love Thy Neighbor.

Not only does Fort Lauderdale appear cruel to the homeless, they are So Bad at public relations. I mean really.

A 90 year old guy tries to feed homeless people and he gets arrested for his efforts?

Homeless advocate Jeff Weinberger gives the following account in the Broward Palm Beach Times:

"At least four police cruisers and a half dozen uniformed cops were ready and waiting for Love Thy Neighbor --not exactly the Clanton Gang-- when the group showed up at its spot adjacent to Stranahan Park as it does every sSunday at 1 p.m. in a white van armed with trays of food. The group's 90-year-old founder, Arnold Abbot, previously had announced that the new ordinance would not deter him from sharing food as he's done for the past 23 years."

Probably the saddest, oddest moment of the arrests when one of the cops allegedly yelled "Drop that plate!" as if the dinner for some homeless person was a gun.

Granted, homelessness is a sticky, complicated, practically impossible problem for cities, or anyone else for that matter, to solve.

I get the concerns some cities where a lot of charities have that  feed the homeless might attract more homeless people to their communities, straining services. But I'm not so sure a blanket ban on helping the homeless is effective.

Besides, don't you just feel a little, teensy, weensy bit bad for these people? They've been dealt a bad hand. Maybe they can't find a job. Or they have mental health issues. Or substance abuse problems. Or they're fleeing an abusive spouse. You never know what made any particular homeless person homeless.

They're not going to disappear off the face of the Earth if you try to drive them out of town and pretend they don't exist.

Some people are trying anyway.

According to NBC News, citing the National Coalition for the Homeless, at least 33 American cities have bans, or are considering bans on sharing food with the homeless, as those guys in Fort Lauderdale did.

What works better, says Robert Marbut, a national homeless consultant quoted by NBC is more nuanced. He said cities and charities should have comprehensive programs to deal with the three major causes of homelessness: a lack of jobs, mental illnesses and chronic substance abuse.

Granted, that's not easy. And not always effective with everyone. But Marbut says these programs reduce homeless populations by 80 percent.

That means cities save money in the long run because they cities don't have to devote so many resources of dealing with people in crisis on the street.  Or arresting people trying to feed the homeless.

A few cities do a hybrid law that doesn't ban feeding or otherwise helping the homeless, but combines restrictions with aid to people without homes.  In these cities charities must get permits to feed the homeless, and are restricted in the number of days and hours they can operate.

That helps prevent locations where the homeless are fed to become too overwhelmed by the activities.

According to an article in The Atlantic, feeding the homeless doesn't necessarily offer an incentive for people to stay on the streets, but Marbut says it does.

Who knows?  Like I said, it's complicated. Which means a simple solution, like just banning charitable members of the public from feeding homeless people, is the ultimate in stupidity. Yeah, everyone loves the sound of simple solutions, but they don't work.

Plus, you get the sad spectacle of police arresting some 90 year old guy for handing a plate of food to some homeless person. As if the 90 year guy was opening fire with an AK-47.  People, it's just a plate of food. Relax.

The 90 year old guy who's been committing the High Crime of feeding the homeless, Arnold Abbott, seems like an incredibly nice guy.

Says the Associated Press:

"Abbott, a World War II vetern and civil rights activist, told the Associated Press that he has been serving the homeless for more than two decades in honor of his late wife. He has several programs, including a culinary school to train the homeless and help find them jobs in local kitchens."

Maybe the fine leaders of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, could drop their guns and opposition to feeding the homeless. Maybe they could pick up a plate, and a spoon and serve a hungry guy or gal.

It's called paying it forward.

Is The DEA A Little Too Interested In Your Spring Gardening?

Apparently, we need to use a little caution when going to garden centers this spring, especially if those garden centers sell hydroponic equipment.

OK gardeners, you're busted. Don't tell
the DEA you're just starting tomatoes indoors
They know it's drugs!  

In some areas of the Midwest, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration is staking out garden centers that sell hydroponic equipment, then conducting raids on households whose occupants were seen buying the stuff, says the Huffington Post, Patch, and other media outlets. 

Of course, a number of people who buy hydroponic equipment indeed use it to help grow pot. One of the people who were staked out indeed had some.

Angela Kirking, 46, was arrested in a raid on her place three weeks after she bought a bottle of organic fertilizer at one of these garden centers. It turns out she had less than a third of an ounce of pot at her place.

Yeah, possessing a third of an ounce of pot is illegal in Illinois, but staking out a garden center, conducting a three week investigation then having a big SWAT team conduct this huge raid on Kirking's place seems to be a bit of overkill don't you think?

DEA officials were asked that very question about overkill, but they're not answering questions.

It was even worse for the Harte family in suburban Kansas City last spring, according to the Associated Press. Adlyn and Robert Harte, both former CIA employees, thought it would be fun to buy some hydroponic equipment to teach their kids about gardening.

But the DEA surveillance caught the couple buying the hydroponic equipment.  So the DEA, like they seem to like to do, conducted another one of their dramatic SWAT team style raids on the Harte home last spring.

The "illicit" plants they found in the house were: Three tomato plants, one melon plant and two butternut squash plants.

I wonder how much this raid cost taxpayers?  The gall of the Hartes! Growing vegetables under grow lights and hydroponics!

And it could get more expensive. The Hartes are suing, because they said police and drug officials had no basis to carry out the raid. (They seem to have a strong case)

So, gardeners, now that it's spring, don't garden suspiciously! No grow lights to get plants started early indoors! No hydroponics!  Even buying fertilizer is suspect.

The DEA is watching, and they know that tomatoes are a gateway drug. You grow one tomato plant, and soon you'll graduate to a pot farm and a meth lab.

Or something like that. Maybe the DEA wants us all to stick to McDonald's and Twinkies?

Mug Shots Show Why You Have To Pick Your Victims Correctly

It was a routine robbery attempt in Charlottesville, Virginia. Two teens decided to rob two guys.

The two guys who were targets of the robbery were not enthusiastic about being victims, says television station WVIR in Charlottesville.

 So they weren't, as you can see by the mug shots in this post. The two suspects, Gerald Allen nd Johnny Calderon, were taken to a hospital for treatment, then arrested.

The two would-be victims were not injured, according to WVIR

Let this be a lesson to you, robbers.

When You Have Bad Mugshot of Yourself, You Had a Lousy Year

Indulge me while I share my fascination with some mug shots. Buzzfeed has offered up a yearly delight: The best mug shots of 2012.

Charge: Indecent exposure (I'll bet!)

Even though all of these people allegedly broke the law, you have to feel sorry for them. They look so hapless, so clueless, such trainwrecks.

If you think you had a bad 2012, these people surely had it much, much worse than you. I've included a couple examples in this post, to give you a hint of what's in the list, if you're too afraid to click on the Buzzfeed  link.

Charge: DUI, Speeding (or on speed?)

Charge: DUI/Leaving Scene of an Accident
And being seriously pissed off