The Eighth Judicial District Court released a statement about the denial of a Temporary Protective Order sought by the mother of three who was shot recently. [RJ]
Is the City of Las Vegas improperly annexing county land? [RJ]
UNLV accidentally sent out an active shooter warning yesterday. Does the bar need something similar in the event something happens in court? [Las Vegas Sun]
Not directly Las Vegas related, but it still affect us: horrific video surrounding two separate incidents of police shooting black men this week. If you’re not up to speed on #AltonSterling and #PhilandoCastile, here’s a link. [BBC]
All lives matter……..I saw signs on TV regarding the "other" chant in Minneapolis today.
Guest
Anonymous
July 7, 2016 3:49 pm
The Castile video is awful. Unfortunately, it tells us little of the events leading to the result. The news reports seem to indicate that Castile was reaching for his ID in his back pocket after he had told the officer that he was armed and the officer had told him to keep his hands up rather than reach for his ID (the officer says "I told him not to reach for it" in the video). A better, but unfortunately not perfect, picture of the sequence of events will come out in the investigation. Tragic, but probably a clean shoot that could have been avoided by meticulously following the officer's instructions. Certainly no basis at this time for any kind of federal investigation.
The Sterling situation isn't quite as tragic. Police apparently responded to a report of Sterling having threatened someone with a gun. In the video, the physical part of the altercation starts when one of the cops charges and tackles Sterling. An educated guess is that was in response to Sterling refusing to comply with a demand to turn around and get on his knees (or something similar) so the cops could cuff him and secure the gun (which he had). There's really nothing to see here, but this will result in protests, too, I'm sure.
Horse. Shit. Cops are armed and ostensibly highly trained. THEY are the ones who should showing restraint and care in any interaction civilians, even at the cost of higher risk. The very nature of a cop's job is to be at risk – a higher level of risk than a random civilian who winds up in an interaction with their alleged protectors. I'm so angry that at the moment I'd vote for disarming most police entirely (lethal arms I mean). A fast google (unverified and not researched any further) tells me that cops out-killed civilians by 20-to-1 in 2014. That's simply flat out inexcusable for a protection force.
Police training needs to stop emphasizing control and authority and start emphasizing calming and collaboration. Police need to become less militarized and confrontational. Police training needs to be social training first and combat training fucking last.
Cops don't need to restrain themselves to the point where they and their family's well being are at risk. If someone has a gun and is not complying, it IS protecting the public to shoot the person. A cop is in fact at greater risk than a civilian because it is his job to deal with dangerous situations so we don't have to. It's his duty to accept risk to himself in the sense that he has to stand between dangerous persons and innocents, but it's not his duty to accept risk by sacrificing his own safety in order to avoid harming someone who is a threat to him and others. He doesn't have to try to fistfight a guy with a knife, and he doesn't have to try to negotiate with a guy with a gun. Either situation can result in the cop's (or others') deaths in a split second during which time the cop will not be able to react. The Castile situation is tragic. I highly doubt Castile was reaching for a gun. You couldn't charge him with attempted whatever if he had lived. But at the same time, he reached behind him after telling the officer he was armed and the officer told him not to reach. You can't say the officer acted unreasonably, either. It only takes a fraction of a second to whip out a pistol and fire a shot that can kill or seriously injure the cop. This situation is a real tragedy with no guilty party. From what we "know," the Sterling situation isn't as bad. Sterling had a gun, had apparently threatened someone with it (that's why the cops were there), and appears to have not been cooperating with the police's attempts to disarm him either through commends or force. Again, split second decision, but in this case, Sterling wasn't so innocent.
Absolute bullshit. In both situations, you had cops that escalated situations that did not need to be escalated and had a 100% chance that the civilian dies under circumstances when it was extremely unlikely that there would be any harm to the cops. The Sterling situation where you had a cop sitting on a guy's arm while screaming to put his arm behind his back and then shoot him point blank multiple times demonstrates that it simply has gotten out of control. Oh btw: the facts appear to belie the original assertion that the cops were called out there for Sterling– turns out according to the store clerk that it was a different person that the cops were seeking. I am not comfortable with cops shooting anyone point blank so does not have a weapon in their hands.
1:10, what evidence do you have that the cops "escalated situations." If the guy won't obey their commands and is (correctly) suspected of having a gun and (possibly correctly) suspected of having pointed it at someone, they are right to try to disarm him. At first they just tackled him. Arguably, they should have tasered him to reduce the chance of resistance where he's armed and further resistance will likely result in a shooting. But you have a suspect who is reasonably suspected of having pointed a gun at someone who doesn't obey commands to submit, and the cops are at fault for trying to subdue him then shooting when he struggles and one of the cops notices the gun and yells it out? Please. You are the one who's full of shit. Cops don't have to play Russian roulette with their lives and their families' futures.
You say they were situations where it was unlikely to result in harm to the cops. That's an incomplete statement. The full, more correct statement is "situations where it was unlikely to result in harm to the cops if the cops went on their merry way and ignored the incident." But the cops in Sterling's case couldn't just ignore the report that someone fitting Sterling's description had just pointed a gun at someone. That would be to permit him (or whoever it was) to endanger the public. You write as if they just showed up and started shooting. Obviously there was some discussion here before the tackle. The tackle almost certainly happened because he didn't listen to commands to submit so they could safely disarm him and then question him. This will all come out soon.
2:16, don't conflate "should have" with "had the right to." The Bundy-incident agents surely would have been within their rights to shoot at people pointing guns at them or to demand that people carrying guns who were suspected of a crime submitted to be cuffed and shot them if they resisted. Whether that was a good idea when they were heavily outnumbered and outgunned is a different question. I don't think they should have opened fire under those circumstances, but only because it would have been suicide, not because they didn't have the right to.
I’m curious about your positions on gun control, abortion, and physical-assisted suicide. Please tell me that the Second Amendment does not give someone a right to carry. Is your value of human life this caviler in all policy matters?
What a bunch of "no I'm a more intelligent lawyer than you, and my arguments are more factual than your arguments bullshit"!
None of you BYU , Western California , Boyd , Arizona white law school grads would last 5 minutes asking for directions from anyone anywhere in any urban setting! You are all so fucking removed from the real realities of the cultural racism that exists between and by both whites and blacks in this country that you think some legal argument can rationally explain and justify the slaughtering of black men by white men employed in law enforcement. The facts are this, and they are indisputable! White men without experience in open cultural interaction with black men are afraid of them! Especially big,tall and strong black men! This fact is exaggerated when white police officers engage in interaction with black men with the authority to act on their own fears and react by shooting and killing black men.
Before you reply, let me qualify my position by informing you that I know by what I speak! I am white, I lived by choic as a young man from the age of 18-20 in the bowels of The Westside of Las Vegas! I frequently played daily pick up basketball on the playgrounds of CVT Gilbert Elementary , under the lights of the outdoor basketball court right smack center in the old Gherson Park Public Housing long before Andre Agassi erected his foundation center, and I played Summer League Basketball at the Doolittle Center with many of the former UNLV greats when UNLV Basketball was really worth a shit! I'm talking Greg Anthony, Stacey Augmon, Larry Johnson, Clint Rossum, Boobie James, Freddie Banks, Moses Scurry, David Butler etc. ! I was always the only "white speck" within 5 square miles surrounded by gang bangers, crack addicts , paroled felons and some of the very best human beings that I've ever met in my life, and on the whole, leaps and bounds better human beings than the vast majority of all the legal colleagues that I've had in my 20+ years of practicing law!
Black men will continue to be killed by fear filled white police officers because most white police officers are ex-military trained hyper aggressive individuals with little or no cultural life experience outside of their own white existence!
What a load of horseshit. Way to make yourself feel so special being the only white person who was ever accepted by black people in the hardest neighborhoods in Las Vegas. I bet it feels good to have bona fides like that! Golly! And your thoroughly one sided analysis of why white people fear black people is the type of weak ass shit I'd expect the token white boy in the ghetto who thinks he belongs. You don't. You never were part of anything.
@4:08! I still do belong in the neighbor-hood! In fact, I relish the unique opportunities I have to make a real difference for others with the money I make off of large corporate civil litigation matters. I don't feel special, I KNOW I AM SPECIAL! No debt! Large cash reserves …I do whatever the fuck I please with my life! I earned it "outside of the box" because I didn't get in line and become what I was supposed to become as dictated by society. I have a great healthy family, wonderful wife and I'm one hell of an attorney! Still passionate about my profession , not addicted to any substances beyond great Bar-B-Que and empathetic for fellow counselors like you!
Again, totally self-absorbed, one-sided view. Its wonderfully awesomely gosh golly REALLY REALLY NEATO that your whitebread life lets you act out your deepest NWA fantasies when you put on your Chuck's and headband and chuck a few 3's at a park in a "dangerous" neighborhood. Nobody in those neighborhoods gives 2 shits or a fuck about you. You have no clue what THEY think about you. Keep telling yourself you belong, keep playing those Limp Bizkit songs on loop, because if there is one thing that makes a white boy think he belongs, its doing what the poor black kids are doing and telling all his white friends about it.
@1:44– What evidence that the situations escalated? In one situation, we have a gun pulled on a motorist for doing nothing more than disclosing that he is a licensed CCW carrier and then the cop opens fire, killing him? Sounds unnecessarily escalated.
In the other situation, we have a report that a guy is brandishing a weapon. We have no evidence that the guy was non-compliant (unless you have seen video that no one else has seen). The cops tackle him and jump on top of him. The natural physiological reaction to having 500 pounds of cop on your torso is to move to be sure that you can breathe. The eyewitness (store clerk) said that Sterling never threatened or brandished a weapon and never went for his weapon. The cops scream "Gun!" But wait a minute…Didn't the cops already know/suspect that there was a gun? So this is no shocker. The eyewitness (store clerk) said that Sterling was pinned down when the officers fired 3 times and shot him in the chest. Then later filed three more shots. The preliminary reports are that some of the wounds are consistent with being shot in the back. Yes that sounds like the cops escalated the situation.
3:25 and 4:28: You are out of control. Good for you, you hung out with black kids in the ghetto. Tell us about how you've actually "helped" them instead of "hooping" with them? Are they at your dinner table? Are you helping pay their bills when they fall on hard times? Are you helping tutor their children? Meaning: are you treating them like real family/friends… Or are you making yourself feel self important by going into their neighborhood to make yourself feel better and leaving no real impact on their lives. Don't paint the rest of us white folks with broad strokes of your own short comings. People kill people, sometimes its white on white, black on black, white on black, black on white, and every other particular combination you can think of. I don't condone by any means what has happened in the last week, it's horrifying. You're not making the situation better by race baiting.
I agree with 8:40. I also grew up poor (not dirt poor, but relative to most lawyers who had wealthy parents) in and near the ghetto and had black friends and classmates. It's because I had that experience that I understand what police are facing in these communities and don't rush to judge them.
No lie, I'm a big white guy and I find big black guys, especially of the "urban" flavor, a bit intimidating. I have no justification for this. I've never been threatened by a black man. I'm not sure any black man has ever even been slightly aggressive at me. It's definitely more about the urban stereotypes than the skin color, since bumping into a black lawyer on the street late at night isn't intimidating at all. Where's this fear come from? Search me. All I can do is do my best to use reason to overcome it. Thus, I wouldn't be interested in a job where I was expected to be in a confrontational relationship with them and armed, and I'm sympathetic to 3:25's position about white suburban cops working in the ghetto, armed.
I'm also very very glad that I'm not a black man who has to sit in fear that I'm going to make some mistake that gets me killed every time I have an interaction with the police sworn to protect me. Looking at the score board, I win. Sorry brothers.
Anyone who does anything other than hold perfectly still and leave their hands in full view any time a cop is talking to them is insane, but if a cop can be excused for shooting an unarmed black man because of the heightened tension of a situation, then we need a way for a frightened black man in a tense situation to be able to survive not following instructions to the letter.
Amen 10:02 am. There has to be some leeway for a frightened agitated black man with 500 pounds of cop on top of him with a barrel of a gun pressed to his chest being able to at least adjust to be able to breathe.
9:57am i truly appreciated your comment, mostly because you admit and address the core issue to which I think most whites are in denial of: fear of certain blacks due to stereotypes despite having no personal issues to have such fear. once that part is acknowledged, then using reason and logic to rebut such fear is possible
3:25 is …pardon the pun, "Dead On" correct! And yes, this activity is going to continue even with the sensationalized media coverage of the Dallas shootings. Just a bunch of talking points and so-called experts telling us a bunch of bs on what would should think. I'm not surprised of the events in Dallas … was just a matter of time.
@ 8:40 a.m. , 3:25 & 4:28 here. I do not openly publicize my personal contributions to and for those people who contributed so greatly to me in my youth about the experiences I detailed in my prior posts. I will answer your inquiry in saying that I have personally paid for all the college tuition and student housing expenses for 7 young black students who are related to those people that I shared my youth with . I host a monthly "family reunion" that usually consists of 20-30 people including my own nuclear bi-racial family to stay in contact with, and to address the current needs of those family members. I am very well involved with the real community leaders, and I make myself available with both my time and my finances when the need arises. I do not take tax deductions for my financial contributions to any non-profit organization that I contribute to. And I don't give a fuck about what the larger societal opinion is of me!
In the last month, how many shootings, murders or robberies were done by young African Americans in the news? 99%? Just an observation. Explain that away. Not a racist just observant. Maybe the news fails to report on the White, Asian or Hispanic criminals. Start with Lee's Liquor and look at the pictures in the RJ and the TV.
July 7 @3:25 They wouldn't let you on the court. You are full of yourself. I heard you turned down the scholarship offer from Duke and played 4 games at a junior college in California in your dreams. You got fired as your high school basketball manager.
@12:52 – The FBI's homicide statistics (Crime in the US 2013) indicate that of the 3,005 homicides where a white person was the victim, the offender was white 2,509 times (83.5%). Conversely, of the 2,491 black murder victims, 2,245 (90.1%)of the offenders were black. So intra-racial murders are more likely statistically than inter-racial murders. However, blacks also only comprise around 13% of the U.S. population (according to the 2010 census). So the fact that the black-offender homicides equate to 47% of all homicides is troubling. Now, of course it isn't just a race thing. It's also a class thing. A poverty thing. An educational thing. An employment thing. A historical thing. There are no easy answers here. Easy answers are for children.
Fine. In LVMPD's jurisdiction, there were 47 black victims of murder/non-negligent homicide in 2015, out of 124 total. There are roughly 2.1 million people in the Las Vegas Metro Statistical Area (I know that includes Henderson and BC, but I don't have the time or inclination to hunt down murder statistics for those mudholes). In 2000, blacks comprised approximately 9.1% of the population. Now, if national statistics hold true for Las Vegas, that means that black offenders killed 42 of the black victims, and relatively few of the remaining 82 victims. It is still worrisome that 9% of the population make up somewhere around 40% of Las Vegas' murderers (again, assuming national trends hold true), roughly equal to the total number of white murders, coming out of 71% of the population. Again, there are no easy answers here, but cold statistics say there's something wrong, be that education, poverty, systemic oppression, or otherwise.
@12:43, the news doesn't report every single homicide. They just don't. However, Metro keeps a homicide log. In the last 30 days, 6 black males have been killed, 3 hispanic males, 1 hispanic female (a newborn, God save us all), one native american male, that murder-suicide Asian family that was all over the news, 1 white female, and 1 unknown male. So, no, in the last 30 days, it isn't even close to 90%, seeing as the murder-suicide comprised 23.5% of the 17 homicides in the last 30 days.
Fine. Please present the statistics or evidence that support that your claim that blacks make up 99% of the shootings, robberies, etc. in the last 30 days, or else admit that your personal observations are evidence of exactly two things: Jack and Shit. You made the claim, now back it up.
Guest
Anonymous
July 7, 2016 3:59 pm
Yay, more riots and looting!
Guest
Lawyer Bird
July 7, 2016 4:10 pm
The Court system in Clark County is a disgusting mess. We have some judges who have NEVER practiced law and others who practiced only a short time or only in narrow areas.
Court employees are ham-stringed by bureaucracy and "can't give legal advice" like "make sure you have recent allegations or your TPO won't be granted."
And Legal Aid, which takes IOLTA money and filing fees in the millions and has "self help" centers set up at both district courts can't seem to construct a simple process for triaging acute DV/TPO issues. Maybe some of that $6 million could be put back into the Courts.
And NO, TPOs don't stop bullets, but they empower victims and give police an instant cause for arrest so they are useful.
Court Filing Revenue $4,175,736
Grants & Contracts $2,452,078
Private Foundations $475,000
IOLTA $1,572,630
Donations $367,577
Interest Income / Other $242,228
Income Before Donated Services $9,285,249
(25,450 hrs at $300/hr) Donated Services $7,635,000
Total Income & Donated Services $16,920,249
YES YES YES. And then they turn around and use Legal Aid funds to sponsor other events or have a presence in Hawaii for the State Bar Meeting. This is a failure of legal aid as much as anything else – they need to have in house staff to assist with TPOs.
For the money that is taken in, and the filing fees that are jacked up higher and higher at every turn (and if you've ever been in one of the back hallways after about 3:00, you could fire a cannon without hitting any of our public servants but don't get me started) I don't see why there can't be some kind of self-help center or Legal Aid presence in the Family Court to make sure that people in this woman's situation are dotting i's and crossing t's on these applications. I don't practice over there so maybe there is and I'm just not aware. But if not, then there is no excuse after this.
There is a Family Law Civil Self-Help Center. There also are DV Counselors that assist with TPO Packets available through Family Court resources. This woman did not utilize those. It is unfortunate. If you want to criticize the outreach, perhaps. But those resources are there.
With that said, the paperwork was allegedly not filled out. And yes, it is becoming SOP to file an Application for TPO in an extremely frivolous and unnecessary circumstances.
Ask a lawyer is every Thursday and that is it – there are more people who need help at other times when they are in a crisis. The packets are hard for a lot of these people to navigate plus the filing system is still using hard copies so they have to come up with copies and the like which just adds barriers. Knowing what is available is even a skill people may not have. Hang out in the office to your right after you go past security at family court and you'll see how alone these folks are. The civil self help center is over at the RJC, so I'm not sure if you're confusing that with the self help center in family court, 5:30.
Guest
Anonymous
July 7, 2016 6:44 pm
Speaking of Saddened and Concerned…this article really bothered me:
One of the girls in the article talks about how she was a paralegal at a law firm and went into prostitution because of repeated offers by male lawyers in the the work environment. As a male myself, it really bothers me how some of my male cohorts treats women in our field, and make sexual advances at most of them. I am a younger attorney in this town, and pretty decent looking. I have never tried hitting on women in my field or treating them like sexual objects. I always try to be as professional as I can be, but it really bothers me that there are others out there (specially the older ones) who just dont give a damn and try to take advantage of their position with women in our field, whether they are attorneys or office staff. It is uncouth and gross.
I'm a pretty old school conservative kind of guy, but I really don' get the whole office lech thing. Gross. Just leave people be. Prostitution, though? $10,000 a week is a s***load of cash but adds up to miles of pole pretty quickly, and mostly low quality men who have been with many hookers, legal and illegal. Even with condoms, the odds say herpes and chlamydia almost for sure, and very likely HIV and/or hepatitis after a year or two.
Came her after reading the article hoping someone was raising this issue.
Also – genuine question, would the bar allow her to be admitted given her criminal record since she anticipates going to law school some day?
"Rose said she has a three-year plan in which she hopes to leave the industry and have enough money to go through law school and eventually open her own law firm."
Depending on her convictions, she could get her record sealed. She can then truthfully answer that she's never been connected and the bar wouldn't have access to the sealed records as far as I know. (Of course the bar may have a different opinion about this.)
I work at a Mormon firm. This does not happen. Our staff is treated well and if any attorney attempted to hit on a female employee, they would be out the door in a heartbeat. It would be gross to work at a place that tolerated that kind of behavior.
Yeah, my understanding was that, sealed or not, expunged or not, if it happened, you have to disclose it. You may not have to disclose it on a job application, but you for damn sure have to disclose it on your law school and bar applications. Would they care? Eh. Probably not, particularly if she then moved onto legally screwing her clients, so she'd probably be allowed to screw her clients legally.
July 7, 2016 at 1:58 PM – Glad to hear you treat women so well in the workplace. How about you quit treating them as second class OUTSIDE the workplace.
@11:57 – as someone with no skin in the game, but who has seen up close and personal how mormons generally treat women – fuck you, your assumptions, and the horse you rode in on.
I've heard that Islam cherishes their women, and that is why they treat them the way that they do. I've also heard that slave-owners in the United States typically had great affection for their property, and mutually respectful relationships with them.
this is 11:44, the original poster. I am mormon. i am a convert mormon (came from a muslim family). What i can tell you is that both religions do put women in an awkward spot of being primarily homemakers and child bearers first, not breadwinners or full equals to men. However, both also let women have a voice and respective rights. that being said, i have seen men of both religions treat their women as equals, and i have seen some treat their women unequally. at the end of the day, it comes down to the man, not the religion. i do not agree with 1:58pm that relies on his religion for justification of the no tolerance on hitting on women deal. That viewpoint has nothing to do with religion, as it should be a universal professionalism of the workplace view. that being said, people of certain faiths indeed do have more "zero tolerance" viewpoints, some that are commonly accepted (like not hitting on women, etc) and some that are not commonly accepted (like having your hair a certain, no facial hair, etc).
The issue with ALL religions is the interpretation of the revealed wisdom by whomever is doing the interpreting. If people weren't a problem, religion and democracy wouldn't be a problem.
THAT said, moderates who tolerate fundamentalist interpretations as consistent with holy writ are the bigger part of the problem than are the relatively small number of fundie whack jobs in any religion. Those guys would be as much of a problem in a bake club as they are a church. Well, if bake clubs had political power I guess.
The Muslim's are fucked on this score, but you've got no excuse at all. You've got a living prophet who at any time can announce that God has decided that we're finally grown up enough to let women carry the priesthood, run the church, or kiss other women for that matter.
Guest
Anonymous
July 7, 2016 6:46 pm
I can't wait for Apple to hurry up and deploy the Disable Camera (Kill Switch) technology, so police will be able to prevent these disturbing videos from causing us discomfort.
On another topic, has anybody heard about what happened to attorney George Maglares? Apparently, he died recently and it's being treated as a murder investigation. Why isn't there anything in the news about this?
To all who have asked about George Maglares he has been laid to rest next to his dear mother. I do not feel comfortable laying out any circumstances regarding his death on this blog however if you email me privately I can help fill in the blanks. RIP my dear friend. For all who knew George his dog has been saved and is in a new home with one of George's clients. Cre8ivli69@gmail.com
Random: when people on the Boyd alum list ask for "low cost" counsel for their friends. How about giving your friend money to hire an attorney instead of asking the rest of us to do a favor and take the case you won't?!
Guest
Unknown
July 29, 2016 6:23 am
George's business FB page has a couple of RIP but his personal page I had not seen anything last time I looked. This is just a very sad story everyone. George was an amazing friend and human being. A heart of gold. I'll miss him so very much.
All lives matter……..I saw signs on TV regarding the "other" chant in Minneapolis today.
The Castile video is awful. Unfortunately, it tells us little of the events leading to the result. The news reports seem to indicate that Castile was reaching for his ID in his back pocket after he had told the officer that he was armed and the officer had told him to keep his hands up rather than reach for his ID (the officer says "I told him not to reach for it" in the video). A better, but unfortunately not perfect, picture of the sequence of events will come out in the investigation. Tragic, but probably a clean shoot that could have been avoided by meticulously following the officer's instructions. Certainly no basis at this time for any kind of federal investigation.
The Sterling situation isn't quite as tragic. Police apparently responded to a report of Sterling having threatened someone with a gun. In the video, the physical part of the altercation starts when one of the cops charges and tackles Sterling. An educated guess is that was in response to Sterling refusing to comply with a demand to turn around and get on his knees (or something similar) so the cops could cuff him and secure the gun (which he had). There's really nothing to see here, but this will result in protests, too, I'm sure.
Horse. Shit. Cops are armed and ostensibly highly trained. THEY are the ones who should showing restraint and care in any interaction civilians, even at the cost of higher risk. The very nature of a cop's job is to be at risk – a higher level of risk than a random civilian who winds up in an interaction with their alleged protectors. I'm so angry that at the moment I'd vote for disarming most police entirely (lethal arms I mean). A fast google (unverified and not researched any further) tells me that cops out-killed civilians by 20-to-1 in 2014. That's simply flat out inexcusable for a protection force.
Police training needs to stop emphasizing control and authority and start emphasizing calming and collaboration. Police need to become less militarized and confrontational. Police training needs to be social training first and combat training fucking last.
Fuck me I need to proof read. *should be showing; *with civilians.
Should we go the British route and have most police not carry guns–while just a few swat teams do?
Cops don't need to restrain themselves to the point where they and their family's well being are at risk. If someone has a gun and is not complying, it IS protecting the public to shoot the person. A cop is in fact at greater risk than a civilian because it is his job to deal with dangerous situations so we don't have to. It's his duty to accept risk to himself in the sense that he has to stand between dangerous persons and innocents, but it's not his duty to accept risk by sacrificing his own safety in order to avoid harming someone who is a threat to him and others. He doesn't have to try to fistfight a guy with a knife, and he doesn't have to try to negotiate with a guy with a gun. Either situation can result in the cop's (or others') deaths in a split second during which time the cop will not be able to react. The Castile situation is tragic. I highly doubt Castile was reaching for a gun. You couldn't charge him with attempted whatever if he had lived. But at the same time, he reached behind him after telling the officer he was armed and the officer told him not to reach. You can't say the officer acted unreasonably, either. It only takes a fraction of a second to whip out a pistol and fire a shot that can kill or seriously injure the cop. This situation is a real tragedy with no guilty party. From what we "know," the Sterling situation isn't as bad. Sterling had a gun, had apparently threatened someone with it (that's why the cops were there), and appears to have not been cooperating with the police's attempts to disarm him either through commends or force. Again, split second decision, but in this case, Sterling wasn't so innocent.
Absolute bullshit. In both situations, you had cops that escalated situations that did not need to be escalated and had a 100% chance that the civilian dies under circumstances when it was extremely unlikely that there would be any harm to the cops. The Sterling situation where you had a cop sitting on a guy's arm while screaming to put his arm behind his back and then shoot him point blank multiple times demonstrates that it simply has gotten out of control. Oh btw: the facts appear to belie the original assertion that the cops were called out there for Sterling– turns out according to the store clerk that it was a different person that the cops were seeking. I am not comfortable with cops shooting anyone point blank so does not have a weapon in their hands.
Wow, cops out-killed civilians 20-to-1? We really need to get that number to a more reasonable 1-to-1 ratio.
1:10, what evidence do you have that the cops "escalated situations." If the guy won't obey their commands and is (correctly) suspected of having a gun and (possibly correctly) suspected of having pointed it at someone, they are right to try to disarm him. At first they just tackled him. Arguably, they should have tasered him to reduce the chance of resistance where he's armed and further resistance will likely result in a shooting. But you have a suspect who is reasonably suspected of having pointed a gun at someone who doesn't obey commands to submit, and the cops are at fault for trying to subdue him then shooting when he struggles and one of the cops notices the gun and yells it out? Please. You are the one who's full of shit. Cops don't have to play Russian roulette with their lives and their families' futures.
You say they were situations where it was unlikely to result in harm to the cops. That's an incomplete statement. The full, more correct statement is "situations where it was unlikely to result in harm to the cops if the cops went on their merry way and ignored the incident." But the cops in Sterling's case couldn't just ignore the report that someone fitting Sterling's description had just pointed a gun at someone. That would be to permit him (or whoever it was) to endanger the public. You write as if they just showed up and started shooting. Obviously there was some discussion here before the tackle. The tackle almost certainly happened because he didn't listen to commands to submit so they could safely disarm him and then question him. This will all come out soon.
By your protocol, federal agents should have mowed down about a hundred gun-toting cowboys at the Bundy standoffs.
But, then again, those weren’t urban environments.
@1:13,
Didn't you learn anything from Top Gun? As soon as the ratio drops to 4:1, they'd open up a school to teach ground combat maneuvering.
2:16, don't conflate "should have" with "had the right to." The Bundy-incident agents surely would have been within their rights to shoot at people pointing guns at them or to demand that people carrying guns who were suspected of a crime submitted to be cuffed and shot them if they resisted. Whether that was a good idea when they were heavily outnumbered and outgunned is a different question. I don't think they should have opened fire under those circumstances, but only because it would have been suicide, not because they didn't have the right to.
P.S., posting now requires a semen sample.
Consistent, I’ll give you that.
I’m curious about your positions on gun control, abortion, and physical-assisted suicide. Please tell me that the Second Amendment does not give someone a right to carry. Is your value of human life this caviler in all policy matters?
What a bunch of "no I'm a more intelligent lawyer than you, and my arguments are more factual than your arguments bullshit"!
None of you BYU , Western California , Boyd , Arizona white law school grads would last 5 minutes asking for directions from anyone anywhere in any urban setting! You are all so fucking removed from the real realities of the cultural racism that exists between and by both whites and blacks in this country that you think some legal argument can rationally explain and justify the slaughtering of black men by white men employed in law enforcement. The facts are this, and they are indisputable! White men without experience in open cultural interaction with black men are afraid of them! Especially big,tall and strong black men! This fact is exaggerated when white police officers engage in interaction with black men with the authority to act on their own fears and react by shooting and killing black men.
Before you reply, let me qualify my position by informing you that I know by what I speak! I am white, I lived by choic as a young man from the age of 18-20 in the bowels of The Westside of Las Vegas! I frequently played daily pick up basketball on the playgrounds of CVT Gilbert Elementary , under the lights of the outdoor basketball court right smack center in the old Gherson Park Public Housing long before Andre Agassi erected his foundation center, and I played Summer League Basketball at the Doolittle Center with many of the former UNLV greats when UNLV Basketball was really worth a shit! I'm talking Greg Anthony, Stacey Augmon, Larry Johnson, Clint Rossum, Boobie James, Freddie Banks, Moses Scurry, David Butler etc. ! I was always the only "white speck" within 5 square miles surrounded by gang bangers, crack addicts , paroled felons and some of the very best human beings that I've ever met in my life, and on the whole, leaps and bounds better human beings than the vast majority of all the legal colleagues that I've had in my 20+ years of practicing law!
Black men will continue to be killed by fear filled white police officers because most white police officers are ex-military trained hyper aggressive individuals with little or no cultural life experience outside of their own white existence!
What a load of horseshit. Way to make yourself feel so special being the only white person who was ever accepted by black people in the hardest neighborhoods in Las Vegas. I bet it feels good to have bona fides like that! Golly! And your thoroughly one sided analysis of why white people fear black people is the type of weak ass shit I'd expect the token white boy in the ghetto who thinks he belongs. You don't. You never were part of anything.
@4:08! I still do belong in the neighbor-hood! In fact, I relish the unique opportunities I have to make a real difference for others with the money I make off of large corporate civil litigation matters. I don't feel special, I KNOW I AM SPECIAL! No debt! Large cash reserves …I do whatever the fuck I please with my life! I earned it "outside of the box" because I didn't get in line and become what I was supposed to become as dictated by society. I have a great healthy family, wonderful wife and I'm one hell of an attorney! Still passionate about my profession , not addicted to any substances beyond great Bar-B-Que and empathetic for fellow counselors like you!
Again, totally self-absorbed, one-sided view. Its wonderfully awesomely gosh golly REALLY REALLY NEATO that your whitebread life lets you act out your deepest NWA fantasies when you put on your Chuck's and headband and chuck a few 3's at a park in a "dangerous" neighborhood. Nobody in those neighborhoods gives 2 shits or a fuck about you. You have no clue what THEY think about you. Keep telling yourself you belong, keep playing those Limp Bizkit songs on loop, because if there is one thing that makes a white boy think he belongs, its doing what the poor black kids are doing and telling all his white friends about it.
@1:44– What evidence that the situations escalated? In one situation, we have a gun pulled on a motorist for doing nothing more than disclosing that he is a licensed CCW carrier and then the cop opens fire, killing him? Sounds unnecessarily escalated.
In the other situation, we have a report that a guy is brandishing a weapon. We have no evidence that the guy was non-compliant (unless you have seen video that no one else has seen). The cops tackle him and jump on top of him. The natural physiological reaction to having 500 pounds of cop on your torso is to move to be sure that you can breathe. The eyewitness (store clerk) said that Sterling never threatened or brandished a weapon and never went for his weapon. The cops scream "Gun!" But wait a minute…Didn't the cops already know/suspect that there was a gun? So this is no shocker. The eyewitness (store clerk) said that Sterling was pinned down when the officers fired 3 times and shot him in the chest. Then later filed three more shots. The preliminary reports are that some of the wounds are consistent with being shot in the back. Yes that sounds like the cops escalated the situation.
http://www.informationliberation.com/ ?id=55130
3:25 and 4:28: You are out of control. Good for you, you hung out with black kids in the ghetto. Tell us about how you've actually "helped" them instead of "hooping" with them? Are they at your dinner table? Are you helping pay their bills when they fall on hard times? Are you helping tutor their children? Meaning: are you treating them like real family/friends… Or are you making yourself feel self important by going into their neighborhood to make yourself feel better and leaving no real impact on their lives. Don't paint the rest of us white folks with broad strokes of your own short comings. People kill people, sometimes its white on white, black on black, white on black, black on white, and every other particular combination you can think of. I don't condone by any means what has happened in the last week, it's horrifying. You're not making the situation better by race baiting.
I agree with 8:40. I also grew up poor (not dirt poor, but relative to most lawyers who had wealthy parents) in and near the ghetto and had black friends and classmates. It's because I had that experience that I understand what police are facing in these communities and don't rush to judge them.
No lie, I'm a big white guy and I find big black guys, especially of the "urban" flavor, a bit intimidating. I have no justification for this. I've never been threatened by a black man. I'm not sure any black man has ever even been slightly aggressive at me. It's definitely more about the urban stereotypes than the skin color, since bumping into a black lawyer on the street late at night isn't intimidating at all. Where's this fear come from? Search me. All I can do is do my best to use reason to overcome it. Thus, I wouldn't be interested in a job where I was expected to be in a confrontational relationship with them and armed, and I'm sympathetic to 3:25's position about white suburban cops working in the ghetto, armed.
I'm also very very glad that I'm not a black man who has to sit in fear that I'm going to make some mistake that gets me killed every time I have an interaction with the police sworn to protect me. Looking at the score board, I win. Sorry brothers.
Anyone who does anything other than hold perfectly still and leave their hands in full view any time a cop is talking to them is insane, but if a cop can be excused for shooting an unarmed black man because of the heightened tension of a situation, then we need a way for a frightened black man in a tense situation to be able to survive not following instructions to the letter.
Amen 10:02 am. There has to be some leeway for a frightened agitated black man with 500 pounds of cop on top of him with a barrel of a gun pressed to his chest being able to at least adjust to be able to breathe.
9:57am i truly appreciated your comment, mostly because you admit and address the core issue to which I think most whites are in denial of: fear of certain blacks due to stereotypes despite having no personal issues to have such fear. once that part is acknowledged, then using reason and logic to rebut such fear is possible
3:25 is …pardon the pun, "Dead On" correct! And yes, this activity is going to continue even with the sensationalized media coverage of the Dallas shootings. Just a bunch of talking points and so-called experts telling us a bunch of bs on what would should think. I'm not surprised of the events in Dallas … was just a matter of time.
@ 8:40 a.m. , 3:25 & 4:28 here. I do not openly publicize my personal contributions to and for those people who contributed so greatly to me in my youth about the experiences I detailed in my prior posts. I will answer your inquiry in saying that I have personally paid for all the college tuition and student housing expenses for 7 young black students who are related to those people that I shared my youth with . I host a monthly "family reunion" that usually consists of 20-30 people including my own nuclear bi-racial family to stay in contact with, and to address the current needs of those family members. I am very well involved with the real community leaders, and I make myself available with both my time and my finances when the need arises. I do not take tax deductions for my financial contributions to any non-profit organization that I contribute to. And I don't give a fuck about what the larger societal opinion is of me!
Blah, blah, blah. You are an idiot if you don't take your tax deduction.
In the last month, how many shootings, murders or robberies were done by young African Americans in the news? 99%? Just an observation. Explain that away. Not a racist just observant. Maybe the news fails to report on the White, Asian or Hispanic criminals. Start with Lee's Liquor and look at the pictures in the RJ and the TV.
Elephant in the room.
July 7 @3:25 They wouldn't let you on the court. You are full of yourself. I heard you turned down the scholarship offer from Duke and played 4 games at a junior college in California in your dreams. You got fired as your high school basketball manager.
Moses told me you used to wash his car.
@12:52 – The FBI's homicide statistics (Crime in the US 2013) indicate that of the 3,005 homicides where a white person was the victim, the offender was white 2,509 times (83.5%). Conversely, of the 2,491 black murder victims, 2,245 (90.1%)of the offenders were black. So intra-racial murders are more likely statistically than inter-racial murders. However, blacks also only comprise around 13% of the U.S. population (according to the 2010 census). So the fact that the black-offender homicides equate to 47% of all homicides is troubling. Now, of course it isn't just a race thing. It's also a class thing. A poverty thing. An educational thing. An employment thing. A historical thing. There are no easy answers here. Easy answers are for children.
I'm talking in Vegas twist the stats quoter at @2:26. Don't try to dilute my point with national stats.
Fine. In LVMPD's jurisdiction, there were 47 black victims of murder/non-negligent homicide in 2015, out of 124 total. There are roughly 2.1 million people in the Las Vegas Metro Statistical Area (I know that includes Henderson and BC, but I don't have the time or inclination to hunt down murder statistics for those mudholes). In 2000, blacks comprised approximately 9.1% of the population. Now, if national statistics hold true for Las Vegas, that means that black offenders killed 42 of the black victims, and relatively few of the remaining 82 victims. It is still worrisome that 9% of the population make up somewhere around 40% of Las Vegas' murderers (again, assuming national trends hold true), roughly equal to the total number of white murders, coming out of 71% of the population. Again, there are no easy answers here, but cold statistics say there's something wrong, be that education, poverty, systemic oppression, or otherwise.
How many were black on black? Give it up. Not talking about that. Talking about the last 30 days.
You keep quoting national statistics. Doubt they are accurate here.
@12:43, the news doesn't report every single homicide. They just don't. However, Metro keeps a homicide log. In the last 30 days, 6 black males have been killed, 3 hispanic males, 1 hispanic female (a newborn, God save us all), one native american male, that murder-suicide Asian family that was all over the news, 1 white female, and 1 unknown male. So, no, in the last 30 days, it isn't even close to 90%, seeing as the murder-suicide comprised 23.5% of the 17 homicides in the last 30 days.
Watch the local news and paper.
You are forgetting my original comment of shootings and robberies, not just murders.
Fine. Please present the statistics or evidence that support that your claim that blacks make up 99% of the shootings, robberies, etc. in the last 30 days, or else admit that your personal observations are evidence of exactly two things: Jack and Shit. You made the claim, now back it up.
Yay, more riots and looting!
The Court system in Clark County is a disgusting mess. We have some judges who have NEVER practiced law and others who practiced only a short time or only in narrow areas.
Court employees are ham-stringed by bureaucracy and "can't give legal advice" like "make sure you have recent allegations or your TPO won't be granted."
And Legal Aid, which takes IOLTA money and filing fees in the millions and has "self help" centers set up at both district courts can't seem to construct a simple process for triaging acute DV/TPO issues. Maybe some of that $6 million could be put back into the Courts.
And NO, TPOs don't stop bullets, but they empower victims and give police an instant cause for arrest so they are useful.
Court Filing Revenue $4,175,736
Grants & Contracts $2,452,078
Private Foundations $475,000
IOLTA $1,572,630
Donations $367,577
Interest Income / Other $242,228
Income Before Donated Services $9,285,249
(25,450 hrs at $300/hr) Donated Services $7,635,000
Total Income & Donated Services $16,920,249
YES YES YES. And then they turn around and use Legal Aid funds to sponsor other events or have a presence in Hawaii for the State Bar Meeting. This is a failure of legal aid as much as anything else – they need to have in house staff to assist with TPOs.
For the money that is taken in, and the filing fees that are jacked up higher and higher at every turn (and if you've ever been in one of the back hallways after about 3:00, you could fire a cannon without hitting any of our public servants but don't get me started) I don't see why there can't be some kind of self-help center or Legal Aid presence in the Family Court to make sure that people in this woman's situation are dotting i's and crossing t's on these applications. I don't practice over there so maybe there is and I'm just not aware. But if not, then there is no excuse after this.
There is a Family Law Civil Self-Help Center. There also are DV Counselors that assist with TPO Packets available through Family Court resources. This woman did not utilize those. It is unfortunate. If you want to criticize the outreach, perhaps. But those resources are there.
With that said, the paperwork was allegedly not filled out. And yes, it is becoming SOP to file an Application for TPO in an extremely frivolous and unnecessary circumstances.
Ask a lawyer is every Thursday and that is it – there are more people who need help at other times when they are in a crisis. The packets are hard for a lot of these people to navigate plus the filing system is still using hard copies so they have to come up with copies and the like which just adds barriers. Knowing what is available is even a skill people may not have. Hang out in the office to your right after you go past security at family court and you'll see how alone these folks are. The civil self help center is over at the RJC, so I'm not sure if you're confusing that with the self help center in family court, 5:30.
Speaking of Saddened and Concerned…this article really bothered me:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/view/prostitution-nevada-has-its-advantages-experts-say
One of the girls in the article talks about how she was a paralegal at a law firm and went into prostitution because of repeated offers by male lawyers in the the work environment. As a male myself, it really bothers me how some of my male cohorts treats women in our field, and make sexual advances at most of them. I am a younger attorney in this town, and pretty decent looking. I have never tried hitting on women in my field or treating them like sexual objects. I always try to be as professional as I can be, but it really bothers me that there are others out there (specially the older ones) who just dont give a damn and try to take advantage of their position with women in our field, whether they are attorneys or office staff. It is uncouth and gross.
I'm a pretty old school conservative kind of guy, but I really don' get the whole office lech thing. Gross. Just leave people be. Prostitution, though? $10,000 a week is a s***load of cash but adds up to miles of pole pretty quickly, and mostly low quality men who have been with many hookers, legal and illegal. Even with condoms, the odds say herpes and chlamydia almost for sure, and very likely HIV and/or hepatitis after a year or two.
P.S., here's the new "not a robot" test to post:
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=XRbZtCTzMg8
Came her after reading the article hoping someone was raising this issue.
Also – genuine question, would the bar allow her to be admitted given her criminal record since she anticipates going to law school some day?
"Rose said she has a three-year plan in which she hopes to leave the industry and have enough money to go through law school and eventually open her own law firm."
I want to know what firm "Rose" worked for.
Was she a law firm hostess?
Depending on her convictions, she could get her record sealed. She can then truthfully answer that she's never been connected and the bar wouldn't have access to the sealed records as far as I know. (Of course the bar may have a different opinion about this.)
The bar does have a different opinion.
I work at a Mormon firm. This does not happen. Our staff is treated well and if any attorney attempted to hit on a female employee, they would be out the door in a heartbeat. It would be gross to work at a place that tolerated that kind of behavior.
Yeah, my understanding was that, sealed or not, expunged or not, if it happened, you have to disclose it. You may not have to disclose it on a job application, but you for damn sure have to disclose it on your law school and bar applications. Would they care? Eh. Probably not, particularly if she then moved onto legally screwing her clients, so she'd probably be allowed to screw her clients legally.
July 7, 2016 at 1:58 PM – Glad to hear you treat women so well in the workplace. How about you quit treating them as second class OUTSIDE the workplace.
@11:57 – as someone with no skin in the game, but who has seen up close and personal how mormons generally treat women – fuck you, your assumptions, and the horse you rode in on.
I've heard that Islam cherishes their women, and that is why they treat them the way that they do. I've also heard that slave-owners in the United States typically had great affection for their property, and mutually respectful relationships with them.
this is 11:44, the original poster. I am mormon. i am a convert mormon (came from a muslim family). What i can tell you is that both religions do put women in an awkward spot of being primarily homemakers and child bearers first, not breadwinners or full equals to men. However, both also let women have a voice and respective rights. that being said, i have seen men of both religions treat their women as equals, and i have seen some treat their women unequally. at the end of the day, it comes down to the man, not the religion. i do not agree with 1:58pm that relies on his religion for justification of the no tolerance on hitting on women deal. That viewpoint has nothing to do with religion, as it should be a universal professionalism of the workplace view. that being said, people of certain faiths indeed do have more "zero tolerance" viewpoints, some that are commonly accepted (like not hitting on women, etc) and some that are not commonly accepted (like having your hair a certain, no facial hair, etc).
CULTS!!!!!!!
@10:36 Apostate.
The issue with ALL religions is the interpretation of the revealed wisdom by whomever is doing the interpreting. If people weren't a problem, religion and democracy wouldn't be a problem.
THAT said, moderates who tolerate fundamentalist interpretations as consistent with holy writ are the bigger part of the problem than are the relatively small number of fundie whack jobs in any religion. Those guys would be as much of a problem in a bake club as they are a church. Well, if bake clubs had political power I guess.
The Muslim's are fucked on this score, but you've got no excuse at all. You've got a living prophet who at any time can announce that God has decided that we're finally grown up enough to let women carry the priesthood, run the church, or kiss other women for that matter.
I can't wait for Apple to hurry up and deploy the Disable Camera (Kill Switch) technology, so police will be able to prevent these disturbing videos from causing us discomfort.
http://thescienceexplorer.com/technology/apple-patents-technology-disable-iphones-taking-videos-concerts
On another topic, has anybody heard about what happened to attorney George Maglares? Apparently, he died recently and it's being treated as a murder investigation. Why isn't there anything in the news about this?
Hmm.. don't know the guy. High 9000's bar number so I'm guessing about 12-15 years out. Last office listed on Trop around Jones or so.
OMG, I worked with him several years ago.
Where did you hear this? There isn't anything on his FB (condolences, etc.).
To all who have asked about George Maglares he has been laid to rest next to his dear mother. I do not feel comfortable laying out any circumstances regarding his death on this blog however if you email me privately I can help fill in the blanks. RIP my dear friend. For all who knew George his dog has been saved and is in a new home with one of George's clients. Cre8ivli69@gmail.com
This comment has been removed by the author.
Are there any underrated litigators who don't bill a crazy hourly rate for civil matters?
I heard you were asking for me? Depends on your civil matter..
That's me. Very reasonable hourly rate. Double the hours to make up for it.
Random: when people on the Boyd alum list ask for "low cost" counsel for their friends. How about giving your friend money to hire an attorney instead of asking the rest of us to do a favor and take the case you won't?!
George's business FB page has a couple of RIP but his personal page I had not seen anything last time I looked. This is just a very sad story everyone. George was an amazing friend and human being. A heart of gold. I'll miss him so very much.