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Not paid for by the Committee to elect John McCain.

AUSTIN January 23, 2008 – On Tuesday, recently-appointed Austin police chief Art Acevedo announced to the media a proposed police surveillance camera system that would attempt to record all public activity in the Sixth Street district in order to reduce the likelihood of crime. The cameras’ recordings would be reviewed in secret by police personnel who would use the footage as evidence in prosecutions against individuals they identify committing crimes on video.

Chief Acevedo said if there is no public opposition to the installation of the public spy cameras, the equipment will be installed and begin recording around 6th Street in a few months.

According to news reports, Chief Acevedo told reporters, “As I travel around the city, I have been approached by residents in high-crime areas who are not only asking, but who are really starting to demand the use of technology.” Acevedo said. “People in this community want us to do everything we can to keep them safe. This is one of those strategies.”

According to KEYE-TV, Chief Acevedo said, “This is to put people on notice: criminals, the community, and the cops — that, yes… You’re in an area to be surveilled that’s out in the open. So, guess what? Before you start fighting with somebody, before you start stabbing somebody, before you start trying to victimize somebody, your action may be caught on tape, and you may be prosecuted and convicted, because we’ll have the best evidence.”

The Sixth Street district is the first target
for complete police surveillance.

Sixth Street is only one of four “high-crime” areas in which Chief Acevedo plans to install “Big Brother”-style surveillance cameras. Other targets include the intersection of North Lamar and Rundberg; 12th Street and Chicon in East Austin; and along Montopolis Blvd. on the Southeast side of town. The particular neighborhoods have ostensibly been chosen because they have “high crime rates.”Chief Acevedo believes he can get “federal funds” to pay surveillance equipment manufacturers and installers, and for maintenance of the system. It is likely these monies would be allocated from the Department of Homeland Security as an “anti-terrorism” measure. The Statesman raised questions over some important details yet to be arranged in the Chief’s camera proposal. Tony Plohetski reported (1/24/08):

[Chief Acevedo] said he plans to explore ways to pay for the project – possibly through federal grants — and work out logistics such as who would monitor the camera footage. Acevedo said one option could be to hire retired officers to watch the videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and call officers on the street if they see a crime in progress.

Other details, such as where the cameras would be positioned and how long the footage would be preserved, need to be worked out, he said. …

The installation of police surveillance cameras in Austin’s well-known 6th Street music district is apparently being spearheaded by a group of business owners who form the Downtown Austin Alliance (DAA). In August last year, DAA leaders visited Dallas to a see a 40-camera police surveillance system instituted there a few months before. The Austin American-Statesman reported (1/24/08):

Austin police and representatives from downtown business associations last year began discussing the possibility of adding cameras along Sixth Street and traveled to Dallas to study its system, which officials added in January 2007. Bill Brice, program director for security and maintenance for the Downtown Austin Alliance, said the visit intensified his group’s support for the cameras. The alliance is also considering whether to help pay for the Sixth Street camera system, he said.

Dallas police received a local grant to pay for their $850,000 system of 40 cameras, which are on utility poles or stoplights across downtown, including areas around the Dallas Convention Center and in the West End historical district. Police officials said each camera cost about $800.

In an interview with KEYE-TV, Bill Brice added that, “We really see this as an opportunity that might help APD keep Downtown [Austin] one of the safest cities in the country.”

According to local news stories, ACLU spokeswoman Debbie Russell is the only person publicly questioning the move toward the police surveillance plan. Ms. Russell told the Daily Texan (1/24/08), “Public cameras will inevitably capture embarrassing, but not necessarily illegal, activity on Sixth Street. Once that video exists, it can live forever online. It could hurt Austin’s downtown entertainment economy. Public surveillance cameras may sound like a good idea, but research has shown they don’t stop people from committing crimes.”

She told KLBJ (1/24/08): “Studies have shown that, in fact, surveillance cameras have not decreased crime … In London, they are the most surveilled city in the world. Many studies have shown [the cameras] are, in fact, not effective.”

However, Ms. Russell is not completely opposed to putting police cameras in on Sixth Street. According to the Statesman, “she would urge the department to use the cameras on Sixth Street for six months as a pilot program before committing to a citywide project.”

APD public information manager Ana Sabana told CITIZINE that the plan to install spy cameras is not yet written in stone yet, and that, more than anything, the chief is merely “floating” the idea to see what people think about the pros and cons of a Big Brother police surveillance system.

An APD spokesman, Detective James Mason, told the Daily Texan (1/24/08), “It’s not anything concrete … TxDOT already has cameras up. We may look at getting in on their cameras, where they could be recorded or monitored by an officer or retired officer. There are just a lot of ideas out there on how it would be funded.” He then said the “police will give the public the final say on the cameras.”

“If they want them, then we will put them in place,” Mason said. “But [Police Chief Acevedo] has been meeting with several communities in the downtown, Rundberg and Montopolis areas, and they’re all for it.”

Read more at CitizineMag.com:

Sixth Street — a police surveillance zone? Austin responds to Chief Acevedo’s plan.

On the afternoon of November 14, 2007, computer consultant Joe Horn, 61, shot and killed two men that had burglarized his neighbor’s home in Pasadena, Texas, near Houston.

When Mr. Horn looked out the window at two o’clock in the afternoon and saw a couple men breaking into his neighbor’s home in broad daylight, he first called 911. When he saw the thieves then come out of the house with a bag of loot, and still no squad cars had arrived, he went outside with his shotgun to confront the men himself.

During his 911 call, Joe Horn identified the two burglars as “black,” and when the news story was first blasted across the airwaves, it was portrayed as another episode in Americans’ ongoing “black/white conflict.” However, in today’s America, nothing is that simple. The burglars weren’t African-Americans – they were in fact illegal immigrants from South America.

The Houston Chronicle (12/7/07) described the burglars’ untimely end and what authorities now know about the two men:

The men, who had just burglarized Horn’s neighbor’s house, faced him from seven to 10 feet away when they ignored his order to “not move” or they would be dead, police said … The two men — Diego Ortiz, 30, and Hernando Riascos Torres, 38 — collapsed and died not far from Horn’s home on Timberline in a Pasadena neighborhood. Both were illegal immigrants from Colombia, authorities said. Torres had been deported to Colombia in 1999 after serving time for possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Both were also using fake identification cards and aliases …[Mr. Ortiz and Mr. Torres] were carrying a sack filled with more than $2,000 in cash and assorted jewelry believed taken in the burglary, police said.

Ever since the reports of the shootings first hit the airwaves, and Mr. Horn’s 911 call was broadcast far and wide, the event has been a source of controversy regarding the state of racial relations, and the righteousness of using firearms to defend your neighborhood from criminals.

Pasadena police Capt. A. H. “Bud” Corbett told the Chronicle (12/7/07), “We now have a summary documenting what we think happened.” The Chronicle reported:

According to a transcript of Horn’s 911 call, at 2 p.m., he became concerned that his next-door neighbor’s home was being burglarized after hearing some glass break. The dispatcher repeatedly urges Horn to stay in his house but Horn states that he doesn’t feel it’s right to let the burglars get away. “Well, here it goes, buddy,” Horn tells the dispatcher. “You hear the shotgun clicking and I’m going.” The dispatcher replies: “Don’t go outside.” Then the tape records Horn warning someone: “Move and you’re dead!” Two quick shots can be heard, followed by a pause and then a third shot.

In an interesting twist, weeks after the shooting, the Pasadena police department revealed that, unbeknownst to Joe Horn. “… a plainclothes Pasadena detective witnessed the Nov. 14 shootings after he pulled up in an unmarked car seconds before Horn fired three shots from his 12-gauge shotgun. Corbett said the plainclothes detective, whose name has not been released, had parked in front of Horn’s house in response to the 911 call. He saw the men between Horn’s house and his neighbor’s before they crossed into Horn’s front yard.

According to the Chronicle: “Corbett believes neither Horn nor the men knew a police officer was present. ‘It was over within seconds. The detective never had time to say anything before the shots were fired,’ Corbett said. ‘At first, the officer was assessing the situation. Then he was worried Horn might mistake him for the `wheel man’ (get-away driver). He ducked at one point.’ “

Capt. Corbett continued, “When Horn confronted the suspects in his yard, he raised his shotgun to his shoulder … However the men ignored his order to freeze.” Corbett said one man ran toward Horn, but had angled away from him toward the street when he was shot in the back just before reaching the curb. “The detective confirmed that this suspect was actually closer to Horn after he initiated his run than at the time when first confronted,” said Corbett. “Horn said he felt in jeopardy.”

In the headline to the Houston Chronicle‘s December 7th report, they made the allegation that Joe Horn had shot both criminals in the back, thus possibly negating his claim of firing in self-defense. However, deep within the article, an investigator for the Harris County Medical Examiner’s office, Ms. Ellie Wallace, “could not confirm whether the men were shot in the back, saying the autopsy report only indicated they were shot in the torso.” Because Mr. Horn used a shotgun against the thieves, rather than a rifle or pistol, it more difficult for forensics teams to determine the exact trajectory of the shots.

Some are wondering what Joe Horn’s neighbors think of him defending their house from burglars, but mysteriously, no information has emerged on their point of view. In the Houston Chronicle‘s first story on the incident (11/16/07), they remarked that, “The owners of the home that was burglarized could not be reached for comment.” Since then, it appears the neighbors have not even been publicly identified.

Firestorm erupts over charges of racism

Media reports in the days after the killings soon caused a whirlwind of public commentaries around Joe Horn’s reaction to his neighbor’s home being ransacked, as commentators questioned whether Joe Horn’s main motivation for confronting the burglars really was his righteous outrage over seeing two masked men brazenly rob his neighbor’s house. Some began to accuse Joe Horn of being extra-anxious to inflict immediate judgment on the robbers because they were black.

About three weeks after the shooting, a fellow going by the name of Quanell X organized a protest in front of Joe Horn’s residence, scheduled for Sunday, December 2nd, where he would give a speech questioning whether the retired computer communications manager had done right. The Pasadena Citizen‘s John David Suayan gave an account (12/4/07) of what transpired at the media event, where Quanell X’s group was met by a much larger brigade of Joe Horn supporters:

The protest was not a one-sided affair since a number of Horn’s friends and supporters appeared to counter and jeer the protesters, waving American flags and carrying signs reading, “We love our neighbor for protecting our neighbors” and “Burglary is a risky business.”

Several bikers simultaneously revved their engines in an effort to drown out Quanell X. There were even racial slurs directed at the New Black Panther Party official and the protesters, who clashed with the counter-protesters …

“He was perfectly within his right to protect himself, his neighbor, and it is wrong what Quanell X is trying to start,” said a Horn supporter.

KHOU-TV (Channel 11) reported that “Riot police were on the scene as a planned protest teetered on the brink of mayhem … Quanell X and his followers planned to meet in front of the home of Joe Horn … in the 7400 block of Timberline for a protest around 3 pm … But they were met with an even larger group of protestors in support of Horn’s actions … Police moved along with [Quanell X's] group, breaking up skirmishes. On several occasions, shoving and kicking matches broke out as protestors confronted the group…”

Mr. X told the Pasadena Citizen that he did not think it was right for Mr. Ortiz and Mr. Torres to break into the house, but that Mr. Horn overreacted: “Our position is that we do not condone their actions. We condemn their actions … But Horn acted as police officer, judge, jury, and executioner, all at the same time.” Quanell X is demanding that Harris County prosecutors indict Joe Horn for murder. He told KHOU-TV, “It’s a matter of justice. It’s a matter of fairness. It’s a matter of respecting the law.”

So far, the only resolution to this series of events has been that the city of Pasadena has banned protests in residential areas. On December 18, the Pasadena City Council voted 6-0 to approve a city ordinance that prohibits picketing in front of a residence. Although this law clearly infringes on political speech, and now sets the city’s residential areas aside as the latest “speech free zones,” the Houston Chronicle reported (12/18/07): “City Councilman J.J. Isbell reiterated that the measure is a safety issue. During the Dec. 2 protest in front of Horn’s home, the streets in the Village Grove East subdivision were clogged and neighbors complained that emergency vehicles would not have been able to get through the area.”

In an official statement published shortly after the shooting, Joe Horn said that “any loss of life casts permanent devastation over the lives of everyone involved. The events of that day will weigh heavily on me for the rest of my life.”

AUSTIN, Tex. January 12, 2008 — Opponents of the Wal-Mart Supercenter that is planned for Northcross Mall gathered together yesterday at St. Louis Catholic Church for a town hall meeting. Responsible Growth for Northcross (RG4N) leaders proposed their next steps after a recent court ruling effectively gave the developer, Lincoln Property Company, a green light to begin construction of the giant retail store.

According to a December 21, 2007, report by the television station News 8 Austin, “District Court Judge Orlinda Naranjo ruled that the site plan in question complied with ordinances and that it did not require public hearings.”

Responsible Growth for Northcross leaders remarked in a written statement that, “In December, the 200th Judicial District Court of Travis County issued its ruling on our lawsuit. RG4N is disappointed with the verdict, but we are not done fighting yet.”

With legal remedies temporarily exhausted, RG4N’s new strategy aims to “put the fear” into Wal-Mart and city officials, by continuing the public campaign against the developers. RG4N hopes to take on the role of “watchdog” and to bust Lincoln Property on any perceived permitting violations during construction of the Supercenter by making complaints to the city. They are also considering pushing for a municipal ordinance to ban 24-hour operation, which would likely make the store less profitable for Wal-Mart. One speaker also mentioned the possibility of a boycott against all Wal-Marts in the region.

Doug Young, an attorney with the law firm Scanlon, Buckle & Young, which is being employed by the RG4N executive committee, said that despite the ruling in favor of Lincoln Property Company, “There is no final judgment yet.” If the group decides to appeal the verdict, it would go to the 3rd Court of Appeals. However, even if they decide to take this course, it could take years for the appeals court to make a decision, and Lincoln Property would likely complete construction on the Wal-Mart in the meantime.

Some of the matters at issue include water runoff and traffic impact on the neighborhoods around Northcross Mall, as well as esoteric city regulations that restrict the construction of a “garden center.” Last year, Wal-Mart had an “open house” where they navigated around this issue by indicating their current plans contain no garden center, only “outdoor retail.”

As part of the group’s future strategy, RG4N president Hope Morrison said they will “hold city leaders accountable” in upcoming elections. However, because of RG4N’s particular non-profit status, the organization cannot endorse or oppose candidates. But Ms. Morrison drew attention to the formation of a new political action group called Better Austin Today, which will be involved in promoting candidates seeking political office, and may seek common cause with RG4N.

In May, voters will get to decide on three Austin City Council seats. Jennifer Kim (who appears to be sympathetic to the neighbors opposed to the Wal-Mart) and Lee Leffingwell are running for re-election; a third seat is open due to the retirement of Mayor Pro Tem Betty Dunkerley. RG4N communications specialist Jason Meeker spoke before the crowd at one point and hinted that he may run for a City Council seat.

Thieves elude police despite SWAT team action

AUSTIN November 25, 2007 – It’s now been more than ten days since a bizarre SWAT team “standoff” around McBride’s Guns in central Austin ended with police searching the building only to discover the thieves had gotten away. Robbers absconded with $5,000 to $10,000 in jewelry and gold coins, but did not steal any weapons.

The Austin American-Statesman’s Claire Osborn reported how the November 13 robbery at McBride’s Guns (2915 San Gabriel) transpired, according to owner Joe McBride:

It took [the thieves] about 10 minutes to break the lock on the two heavy-duty steel back doors to get into the business, McBride said. A video camera inside the store showed two people wearing ski masks … The thieves smashed a glass counter to get to the coins and jewelry … The store’s security company alerted police at 4:36 a.m. Tuesday.

When the police arrived on the scene, they saw that there was forced entry and merchandise scattered around the floor, so instead of entering the building to see if the thieves were still present, they pulled back and called in the SWAT team. The SWAT team is the militarized wing of the Austin Police Department that is trained to handle urban siege situations with a combination of prudence and heavy-duty firepower.

While the SWAT team was on its way to the rescue, McBride’s security company reported a “secondary alarm” had detected movement inside the building. Soon after, the phone lines to the shop were cut, although it is unclear who severed the lines.

The SWAT team arrived at about 5:30 am. They cordoned off several blocks around McBride’s, and closed Lamar Boulevard between 29^th and 31^st Streets. The closing of this main thoroughfare effectively paralyzed traffic through central Austin, and severely disrupted many people’s Tuesday morning commute. In addition, residents, students, and workers who were unfortunate enough to be within the SWAT team’s zone of control were put on “lock-down” and forbidden to leave their buildings until the SWAT team operation was complete.

Austin police spokesperson Sgt. Joe Munoz said, “Everything led us to believe there was somebody in there, because we had the secondary motion detector go off.” Police sent a robot inside McBride’s and set off a smoke bomb to force the thieves out. The SWAT team ended their “response” to the break-in at about 2 pm when they searched the entire premises and found the thieves had already departed.

During the nine-hour “apparent standoff,” the police exploded seven canisters of tear gas inside the shop. Days after the police action, Mr. McBride said the gas still permeated the air in the building and that it would take a while to clean up the mess.

Mr. McBride says he does not believe any guns were stolen. He told KXAN-TV, “They were after some of the costume jewelry, some of the gold necklaces, and some of the coins, they weren’t after the guns …” The last time someone successfully broke into the shop was decades ago: “It happened about 25 years ago where somebody drove a back of a pick-up truck through the front of the store, and that was before we had all of these bars put up….” That thief stole about 30 handguns, and since then, steel bars were installed in front of the glass.

Although thieves got away with thousands of dollars in gold and silver, the SWAT team left the nine-hour “standoff” empty-handed.

Feds grab over 50,000 collectible “Ron Paul Dollars” in raid

November 21, 2007 – Last week federal agents invaded the headquarters of Norfed, manufacturer of collectible “Liberty Dollars,” and confiscated all of the company’s precious metals, computers, and documents. FBI officials in charge of an investigation have refused to publicly discuss the raid that has effectively shut down the “National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act and the Internal Revenue Code.”

Norfed manufactures collector currency, “Liberty Dollars,” which contain precious metals such as gold and silver. On their website, Norfed offers instructions on how to use the silver medallions in everyday transactions as a “private voluntary barter currency.” About a year ago, the U.S. Mint issued an internet “warning” about Norfed’s “Liberty Dollars,” indicating that prosecutors within the Department of Justice had determined the minting of gold and silver “Liberty Dollars” to be a federal crime because the medallions “are specifically intended to be used as current money in order to limit reliance on, and to compete with the circulating coinage of the U.S.” and thus violates United States Code Title 18, Section 486, which prohibits privately “uttered” gold or silver currency.

The FBI’s primary raid took place at 8 am on Wednesday, November 14th at Norfed’s headquarters at 225 N. Stockwell Road, in an Evansville, Indiana, strip mall. There was no official announcement of the FBI’s armed robbery, but news spread over internet channels when Bernard von NotHaus, “monetary architect,” sent out a dire notice alerting Liberty Dollar holders of the calamity. “For approximately six hours they took all the gold, all the silver, all the platinum and almost two tons of Ron Paul Dollars that were just delivered last Friday. They also took all the files, all the computers and froze our bank accounts.” The raid in Indiana turned out to be only one of the armed robberies by federal agents that day: “… to make matters worse, all the gold and silver that backs up the paper certificates and digital currency held at the vault at Sunshine Mint [in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho] has also been confiscated. Even the dies for mint of the gold and silver Liberty have been taken.”

FBI agent Andrew Romagnuolo appears to be leading the investigation against Norfed’s minting of hard currency. The Washington Post’s Alec MacGillis reported (11/17/07) on the curious timing of the government’s surprise assault:

Norfed officials said yesterday that the six-hour raid occurred just as its six employees were mailing out the first batch of 60,000 “Ron Paul Dollars,” copper coins sold for $1 to honor the candidate, who is a longtime advocate of abolishing the Federal Reserve. The group says it has shipped out about 10,000 silver Ron Paul Dollars that sold for $20 and about 3,500 of the copper $1 coins. But it said the agents seized more than 50,000 of the copper coins — more than two tons’ worth — plus smaller amounts of the silver coins and gold and platinum Ron Paul Dollars, which sell for $1,000 and $2,000. …

A Paul campaign spokeswoman said yesterday that the campaign has “no affiliation” with the Ron Paul Dollars. But Paul’s supporters said the seizure of the coins is sure to further stoke support for the campaign.

“People are pretty upset about this,” said Jim Forsythe, head of the Paul Meetup group in New Hampshire, who said he recently ordered 150 of the copper coins. “The dollar is going down the tubes, and this is something that can protect the value of their money, and the Federal Reserve is threatened by that. It’ll definitely fire people up. …”

The Indianapolis bureau of the FBI referred calls to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina in Charlotte. That office’s spokeswoman, Suellen Pierce, declined to comment. But bloggers at the libertarian Reason Foundation posted online a 35-page copy of the affidavit for a search warrant filed last week in Asheville, N.C., laying out the government’s case against Norfed. Pierce said the search warrant had been accidentally made public and has since been sealed.

In the affidavit, an FBI special agent states that he is investigating Norfed for federal violations including “uttering coins of gold, silver, or other metal,” “making or possessing likeness of coins,” mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. “The goal of Norfed is to undermine the United States government’s financial systems by the issuance of a non-governmental competing currency for the purpose of repealing the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Code,” he states.

Since Norfed formed in 1998, they have marketed silver medallion “Liberty Dollars” as a means to protect an investor against the declining value of the legal paper currency now used, the Federal Reserve Note. They also advertise that independent businesses around the country accept payment for goods and services with these silver and gold medallions.

Mr. Von NotHaus called on customers who have not received their orders, along with holders of gold-backed paper Liberty currency, to sign up for a forthcoming lawsuit against the U.S. government for return of the stolen property.