Random News and Notes 9 August

On this date:

• 480 BC – The Persian army defeats Leonidas and his Spartan army at the Battle Thermopylae, Persia.
• 48 – Julius Ceasar defeats Gnaeus Pompey at Pharsalius
• 378 – A large Roman army under Valens, the Roman emperor of the East, is crushed by the Visigoths, led by Fritigern at the Battle of Adrianople. Of the 30,000 Roman troops, fewer than 10,000 survived. Valens was among the dead.
• 1483 – Pope Sixtus IV celebrates the first mass in the Sistine Chapel, which is named in his honor.
• 1654 – Settlers in New Amsterdam gain peace with the Indians after conducting talks with the Mohawks.
• 1814 – Andrew Jackson and the Creek Indians sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving the whites 23 million acres of Creek territory.
• 1842 – The Webster-Ashburton treaty fixes the border between Maine and Canada’s New Brunswick.
• 1859 – The escalator is patented. However, the first working escalator appeared in 1900. Manufactured by the Otis Elevator Company for the Paris Exposition, it was installed in a Philadelphia office building the following year.
• 1877 – Having refused government demands that they move to a reservation, a small band of Nez Perce tribesmen clash with the U.S. Army near the Big Hole River in Montana.
• 1910 – The first complete, self-contained electric washing machine is patented.
• 1930 – First appearance of the animated character Betty Boop (“Dizzy Dishes”)
• 1945 – The B-29 Bockscar piloted by Major Charles Sweeney dropped the Fat Man bomb on Nagasaki Japan. the bomb detonated at 11:02 a.m. about 1,650 feet above the city. An estimated 40,000 to 75,000 people were killed instantly, with total deaths reaching roughly 74,000 to 80,000 by the end of 1945.

• 1965 – Singapore expelled from Malaysia following economic disagreements and racial tensions; becomes independent republic.
• 1969 – Charles Manson’s followers kill actress Sharon Tate and her three guests in her Beverly Hills home.
• 1974 – Gerald Ford is sworn in as president of the United States after the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
• 2014 – Michael Brown becomes a good thug when Police Officer Darren Wilson shoots and kills him after Brown tried to take the officer’s gun.

We start today’s news in cheesehead land. Police in Brookfield, Wisconsin, police shut down traffic on I 94 for a high-risk stop after Flock flagged the vehicle as connected to a homicide. One small problem, it was a false alarm. It seems the Milwaukee PD had entered the plate in the Flock system, cleared the vehicle and driver of any wrongdoing, but never removed the flag from the system. That’s enough of a problem, but it gets worse. This is the second felony stop of this vehicle in as many days.

While I am generally on the side of the police, I am of the opinion that Flock and the other ALPR camera companies need to be sued out of existence. They are regularly being misused in all sorts of ways, and have no place in the United States. Seriously, how long before someone is shot to death on the side of the roads because Flock told some room temp IQ cop that a car was being driven by a bad guy? And yes, the room temp IQ thing is real, police departments actively exclude high IQ recruits regularly, there was a major RAND study about it.

There are reports that the security services in the UK are on high alert over a New IRA migrant expulsion threat. The New IRA has announced a “campaign of violence” to remove migrants from Ireland.

The dissident republican group, still pushing for Irish unification, has added ‘all migrants out’ to its aims amid tensions from migrant-related crime on both sides of the Irish border. This follows June disturbances in Northern Ireland after Sudanese asylum seeker Hadi Alodid allegedly stabbed Stephen Ogilvie, sparking riots with burning vehicles and masked figures.

UK officials fear the threats of 24-hour eviction notices and civil unrest could inspire copycat actions in Britain, prompting close collaboration with Ireland on border security. Police fear they would not be able to contain the masses in the UK, should they take inspiration from the IRA.

Staying in the UK, Manchester police detained a man who just bought a baseball bat. The video captures the officer approaching the man on a busy shopping street, leading to an escalation where more police arrive and take him to the ground while bystanders shout and film. Critics call the response disproportionate, contrasting it with past unrest where blades went unchecked, and label it ‘two-tier policing’ favoring certain groups.

UK law views a baseball bat as a potential weapon without a reasonable excuse like a fresh purchase, though some defend the caution in a crowded area and advise compliance first. I really hope John Bull takes some inspiration from the New IRA and rises up on his hind legs again to take control of his country again.