Saturday Morning Confusion!

My problem with the shooting of Ian Bush that we discussed in the last article is that the man was handcuffed and shot in the back of the head. This, to me, stinks to high heaven and needs to be looked into.

On the other hand, there are some situations where the use of "deadly force" is justified and even demanded. Take this case!

An Ontario Provincial Police officer was not criminally responsible in the shooting death of a mentally challenged Renfrew man in April, the provincial Special Investigations Unit has found.

Michael Foster, 24, died after the officer shot him in the chest outside Foster's home west of Ottawa. He was pronounced dead in hospital after he was shot in the chest by police.

This shooting is also a tragedy but; "It is entirely reasonable to conclude that the subject officer had an honest and reasonable belief that it was necessary to shoot Mr. Foster in order to protect himself from either death or grievous bodily harm," SIU director James Cornish said in a news release issued Friday afternoon.

The SIU, a civilian agency, investigates cases of serious injury, sexual assault or death involving police. Its investigation found that the officer only shot Foster after the man had brandished a pellet gun and multiple knives at police, thrown a knife in the direction of the officer who later shot him, and ignored repeated commands to stop and put the weapons down, the release said.

Police were called to Foster's home after he began acting aggressively toward his mother and girlfriend after an afternoon of drinking.

After Foster was shot, the police officer administered first aid and Foster was sent to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Something like this I have no problem with and sympathize with the cop who had to shoot someone, because not only do they have to do a difficult job, he will have to live with the shooting the rest of his life.
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I don't often agree with everything Donald Trump says but I have to admit I like Rosie O'Donnell about as much as he does.

Rosie O'Donnell has had enough of The View.

ABC has announced she won't be back on the daytime chat show following an angry confrontation over U.S. politics with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Wednesday.

Rosie O'Donnell started at The View last September, and will not complete the season. The fight was a prolonged discussion about the war in Iraq, with harsh words by both parties.

Though the pair have frequently disagreed on air, this was their longest and most bitter argument to date. Toward the end, the network went to split screen as both co-hosts were speaking at once.

O'Donnell, known for her outspoken manner and strong political views, has received an early exit from her contract, which was due to end in mid-June.

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Chickenshit Shia cleric al-Sadr emerges after months of hiding

Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr resurfaced in Iraq Friday after nearly four months in hiding, and demanded U.S. troops leave Iraq.

Al-Sadr, 33, went underground, reportedly in Iran, at the start of a U.S.-led security crackdown on Baghdad. He also had ordered his militia off the streets to prevent conflict with U.S. forces.

Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr resurfaced Friday after spending four months in hiding.

His return to the Shia holy city of Najaf appeared to be an effort to regain control over his militia, which has begun fragmenting, and to take advantage of the illness of a Shia rival — Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer and went to Iran for treatment.

Al-Sadr drove in a long motorcade from Najaf to its sister city of Kufa to deliver an anti-American sermon to 6,000 chanting supporters at the main mosque.

While the call for a U.S. pullout was nothing new, al-Sadr also peppered his speech with nationalist overtones, criticizing the government for not providing services, appealing to his followers not to fight with Iraqi security forces and reaching out to Sunnis.

"To our Iraqi Sunni brothers, I say that the occupation sows dissension among us and that strength is unity and division is weakness," he said. "I'm ready to co-operate with them in all fields."

Al-Sadr did not address his reasons for returning but during his time in absentia, his militia appeared to be splitting into extremist and moderate factions.

Gee, maybe we could send a few of our cops over there to deal with this nutcase!

Your "all the news" scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) www.God-101.com

Canada's Finest?

Let me tell you something I have learned about cops.

I have formed an opinion about them because of a few of my own experiences;

A. I have friends from my school days who were on the Toronto Swat Team, on the Toronto Marine Unit, and another on the Durham Regional Force.

B. Plus, I had a few run-ins with the cops and our court system about 10-15 years ago that were all alcohol related. (This is one of the reasons I don't drink much anymore, I figure I drank enough before 50 to last me for anything over 50!)

Anyways, the problem with cops is that they all suffer from the same disease! You see, when a baby cop is in the police academy they are taught that their job is to "UPHOLD" the law!

Where we run into a problem is that every cop in the world, after he or she has been on the beat for a certain amount of time, has a dramatic shift in outlook and goes from being an "upholder of the law" to actually considering themselves to be the law.

(This might be partly because law enforcement officers live in a closed society where most if not all their friends are other cops, and also, the use of the power given to a police officer starts to go to their heads after a while.)

This, over a period of time, leads to an "Us vs. Them" mentality and is contagious to the point where eventually every cop is infected to a greater or lesser degree.

This also means that when one of them is in trouble, everyone else will close ranks to protect their own! (And please, please, don't insult my intelligence by telling me that cops don't lie!)

Now the purpose behind this whole story is to tell you about one of Canada's Finest who is now on the hot seat!

Out in western Canada there was an R.C.M.P. officer who arrested a young guy and took him to jail. (Just for arguments sake, we will call him Ian Bush)

It doesn't really matter what Ian was arrested for, since it was a minor offence, but rather it was the outcome that is serious and mysterious.

This young man, during the course of the arrest, was shot and killed by an R.C.M.P. officer (Paul Koester) in "self defense" after the man apparently became belligerent.


(This, by the way, was contrary to his nature, according to people who knew him.)

The whole point is that in an inquest being held a few years after the death, it just came to light that the young man who was killed was;

A. Handcuffed!

B. Shot in the BACK of the head at close range!

Here is some of the testimony so far:

Testimony today before Coroner Shane DeMeyer indicated there had been a violent struggle leading up to Bush being shot in the back of the head.

Sergeant Jim Hignell, a blood specialist, painted a picture to the jury of his interpretation of the crime scene. He said he believed that Bush was on top of Koester on a couch in the room.

Bush had Koester in a choke hold. Koester was able to draw his service revolver and beat Bush with the barrel end and then, fearing for his life, pulled the trigger.

No evidence has been introduced showing any bruise marks to Koester’s throat area.

Howard Rubin produced for the court a pair of life like statues and asked Sergeant Hignell to reproduce the struggle to the jury.

Hignell explained that he would have difficulty in getting himself into a position to fire the gun into the back of Bush’s head.

Under further cross examination Sergeant Jim Hignell testified that he spoke to RCMP Counsel last night.

What was said during that conversation is not known because of a client privilege.

The inquest was told that the struggle by Bush and Koester took place at about the seating level on the couch with Bush on top of Koester.

The shooting took place three blocks away from the arena where Bush and some friends had attended a hockey game; they had come out of the arena and were apparently drinking a beer when the police showed up.

When Bush failed to give his right name to Koester, he was taken to the detachment and then taken into the interrogation room.

Testimony will show that Koester said he turned on the tape machine to get a video and audio conversation of the event. Police would find out later there was no tape in the machine!!!!!

Constable Paul Koester, who is said to be stationed in Williams Lake, will testify tomorrow.

He was scheduled to appear today but Counsel agreed that it would be better to have all of his testimony and cross examination conducted at one time.

Koester is expected to testify that he tried to hit Bush with the barrel of the gun several times and then, fearing for his life, pulled the trigger as he was blacking out.

We will see what the rest of the inquest brings to light, but I'll leave you to draw any conclusions!

In the meantime, remember that old saying; "There's something rotten in Denmark."

Because if there is, it's probably the police force!

Your "hush, hush, and on the Q.T." scribe;
Allan W Janssen