This article:

NYPD to use drones to monitor backyard parties over Labor Day weekend, sparking privacy concerns

The New York City Police Department announced plans to fly surveillance drones over the city this Labor Day weekend to monitor outdoor parties or barbecues following complaints about large gatherings.

The plan prompted criticism from privacy and civil liberties advocates who raised concerns about whether this use of drones violates existing laws on police surveillance.

“It’s a troubling announcement, and it flies in the face of the POST Act,” New York Civil Liberties Union privacy and technology strategist Daniel Schwarz said, referring to a 2020 city law requiring the NYPD to disclose its surveillance tactics. “Deploying drones in this way is a sci-fi-inspired scenario.”

I’ve seen a lot of people saying they’d shoot down the drones.

Let me remind you that firing a gun in an urban area is against the law, and you are responsible for every bullet that goes up and what happens when it comes down.

So let’s look back at history.

During WWII, when the Germans were bombing London, the British set up a passive defense called barrage balloons.

Interesting, but I’m not making bombs.

Let’s look at nature.

This is a Portuguese Man-O-War.

They hunt by dragging their tentacles behind them in the water.

This is one catching a fish.

Have we put two plus two plus two together yet?

How about a series of party balloons dragging long strands of high-test monofilament fishing line.

It would be nearly invisible, and any drones that would fly into the line would get it’s props tangled instantly.

No props, no lift.

No gunshots into the air.

No noise of gunfire.

I’m just thinking out loud.

That’s a fucking burn…

Video from the Jacksonville Dollar General shooting.

It looks like he’s wearing a plate carrier of some sort.

I haven’t read that he was wearing armor, but it’s not an unreasonable assumption to think he was with that rig.

Your CCW gun won’t punch through plates.

A mag dump into the space between the top of his dick and the bottom of his belly button will shatter the pelvis and put him on the ground.

Nobody is walking with a broken pelvis.

If you’re lucky you’ll hit the descending aorta, iliac, and/or femoral arteries, and he’ll bleed out in about 30 seconds.

If not, you have the ability to maneuver into a position where a more instantly lethal shot can be taken.

Years ago I wrote this post:

The difference between Americans and Venezuelans (hopefully)

It was in response to this picture from an article about the Communist famine in Venezuela.

At the time, I quoted a friend of mine who sent me the article:

“Please, tell me they failed because they didn’t try socialism hard enough. Because, God knows, if that were my daughter or wife, I’d wage a crusade against that regime that would be written about for hundreds of years.”

I agreed.

I never thought I’d see the same happen in America.

I was wrong.

Parents find remains of teen son hugging dead dog in Maui home destroyed by wildfire

Grieving parents found the body of their 14-year-old adopted son hugging his dead dog after the Maui wildfires — then carried him around half a mile to a police station to be confirmed among the dead.

Schoolboy Keyiro Fuentes had been home alone enjoying his last day of summer break when the deadliest US wildfires in a century started overwhelming his neighborhood in Lahaina, his mother, Luz Vargas, told CBS News.

The mom was working five miles away at the time — and unable to get home when she saw the smoke, despite begging cops to let her through their barriers.

When she and the rest of her family managed to search their home two days later, they found Keyiro’s charred body wrapped around his dead dog, the sobbing mom told CBS.

The family then wrapped Keyiro’s body in a tarp, carrying the remains half a mile to the nearest police station.

I am telling you right now: If my children are in harm’s way, and you try and stop me from getting to them, I will kill you and run your barricade.

If the government caused my children to die in a fire, I promise you, the result will be war.

The entire local government of Maui deserves to be forced onto their knees in front of a ditch.

Yesterday, a racist nut-job killed three people then himself in a Dollar General in Florida.  The media have swarmed all over that like flies on fresh shit, because it hits every button for them: white guy, black victims, racism, AR-15s, happening in Florida so they can blame it on DeSantis, etc.

On Wednesday, three people were killed in a mass shooting that you didn’t hear about.

Why?

3 killed in Southern California bar shooting by former cop who attacked his estranged wife

At least three people were killed and six more wounded after a former police officer opened fire in a shooting that appeared to target his estranged wife at an iconic biker bar in Southern California’s Orange County Wednesday evening, authorities said. The gunman is also dead.

The suspect was killed by “multiple” deputies who confronted him minutes after they arrived, Orange County Sheriff’s Department Undersheriff Jeff Hallock told reporters at a late night briefing.

Snowling was a former sergeant with the Ventura Police Department who retired in 2014, Barnes said, noting that the gunman lived in Ohio but also had a home in Southern California.

“We believe he traveled from Ohio with an ongoing dispute regarding the separation and pending divorce with his wife,” Barnes said.

Barnes said Snowling entered the bar with two firearms and went “directly” to his wife. There was no argument or exchange before Snowling opened fire, shooting his wife once, Barnes said.

Snowling then began firing “randomly” at other people both inside and outside the bar, Barnes said. After leaving the inside of Cook’s Corner, Snowling went to his truck and got a third handgun and a shotgun. Someone confronted Snowling at that point, but he was shot and killed, Barnes said.

That’s why.  This story contains all the buttons the media has to avoid:

Only police and retired police can be trusted with guns.

California has great gun control laws so mass shootings don’t happen there.

If it didn’t happen with an AR-15, it didn’t happen.

A cop went in a mass shooting rampage with handguns in California?  Unpossible, and you’re not going to hear about it.

But this story gets worse.

California Governor Gavin Newsom never misses an opportunity to be a piece of shit.

His official statement was just a sales pitch for Red Flag Laws.

In Wake of Cook’s Corner Mass Shooting, Governor Newsom Issues Statement and Urges Californians to Use Life-Saving Red Flag Laws

In the wake of last night’s mass shooting in Trabuco Canyon that left at least three victims dead and six individuals wounded, Governor Gavin Newsom today issued a statement regarding the incident and urged all Californians to use the state’s “red flag” laws. Red flag laws allow victims of domestic violence, family members, coworkers, and others to seek protective orders to prohibit potentially dangerous individuals and abusers from possessing guns.

“Once again, a siege of bullets has shaken a community and torn families apart,” said Governor Newsom. “California mourns for the victims of last night’s horrific shooting at Cook’s Corner.

“As we continue to learn more details about this act of violence, there are early reports that this horror was related to a domestic dispute.

“This type of trauma is unfortunately not isolated. Two-thirds of mass shooters in America have a history of domestic violence. Victims and survivors in California should know they are never alone — we have tools and resources to support and protect you. Our state’s red flag laws allow victims, family members, coworkers, and others to work with local law enforcement and the courts to safely remove guns from those who may be a potential threat.

“We must continue to strengthen, defend, and use these laws. If you see red flags, say something — and in doing so, save lives.”

Who need empathy for the victims when there is gun control to push before the dead are even cold.

And, just as a side note, knowing law enforcement, is there a chance in hell that a Red Flag warning on a cop by an ex-wife would go anywhere?  Or would fellow officers just ignore that?

We’re going to spend the next few months with everyone using the Jacksonville shooting as a cudgel against DeSantis.

When a cop I’m California goes on a mass shooting, nobody says shit about it.

H/T: The Wife

This story from Metro UK:

Woman fined for fighting back ‘too much’ during sex attack

Milica Živković walked into court as a victim, but the judge gave her a slap on the wrist for ‘exceeding the necessity of self-defence’.

The 24-year-old was walking home with a friend after a night out in the town of Kolašin, in northern Montenegro, when she noticed a man was following them.

Milica said: ‘He grabbed my chin… and then he grabbed me by my intimate part (bottom area).

‘Defending myself, I hit him with a closed and then open fist, which I learnt while training kickboxing for four years.’

She added: ‘In such moments you can only think of the worst. But I fought as hard as I could, and of course I knocked him out.’

In court, Milica was fined €82 for ‘exceeding the necessity of self-defence’ and for ‘violating public order and peace’, which made her feel ‘very uncomfortable’.

Meanwhile, her attacker had to pay only €370 before being released from prison.

This guy grabbed her by the face and ass and she exceeded the necessity of self-defence by knocking him out?

Fuck Europe.

If that was America, and if she gave that man a sucking chest wound with a JHP I’d have called it good.

European countries hate when citizens subjects defend themselves.

In most European countries, even non-lethal tools of self-defence, such as pepper spray, are illegal.

In England, women are only allowed to carry personal alarms. But those are limited to 140 dB, so they don’t hurt the poor rapists ears.

I’m an American. I want women to be able to defend themselves from sexual assault with whatever tools they feel are necessary.

Remember: It is physically impossible for a rapist to maintain an erection while suffering from hypovolemic shock.

From The Hill:

Maui residents who disobeyed barricade survived fires: AP

Those who disobeyed the barricaded road closures during the Maui fires survived the disaster, while many of those who heeded orders to turn around perished in their cars and homes with no way out, The Associated Press reported.

At least 114 people were killed in the fires earlier this month, and the FBI is estimating that up to 1,100 more are unaccounted for. Officials are facing increased scrutiny for the emergency response, including why the emergency sirens were not set off and whether closing the roads prevented people from getting to safety.

In the early hours of the Maui fires, there were more than 30 power poles downed alongside the Honoapiilani Highway at the south end of Lahaina — a historic town that was decimated in the fires earlier this month. Officials closed Lahaina Bypass Road due to the fires, blocking the only way out of Lahaina to the southern part of the island.  

Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said during a news conference that officers never stopped people from leaving the area, but the AP report suggests that residents were discouraged from disobeying the barricade. 

One family swerved around the barricade set up to escape the flames, while another resident took a dirt road uphill to climb above the fire, according to the AP. However, many others who stayed in the cars on that road were stuck in a gridlock, with fires surrounding them on most sides with the ocean on the remaining side.

Kim Cuevas-Reyes said that she survived with her two sons by ignoring orders to turn right onto Front Street, which has now been devastated by the fires. Instead, she turned left and drove in the wrong lane to escape the town.

This is evil.

The government murdered people.  There is no other way to describe this.

The government put up barricades which trapped people in harm’s way of a raging fire.

The people who survived disobeyed the barricades, going around them and off-road or in the opposite lane.

We at GFZ have always been advocates of owning firearms as a bulwark against tyranny.

It seems that having a 4X4 is another weapon in your arsenal against government oppression.

When the government barricades your escape from certain death, you kick it into 4WD and blaze a new path to safety.