Further postings on hold for the time being

At the moment I'm not continuing the lengthy post I was doing, I'm putting it on an indefinite hold for several reasons. One reason is that some things have now changed and the post has to now be updated with new information. Another reason is that at the moment I'm far too angry thanks to the current situation to continue with writing posts. The final and most important reasons will be explained below.

I've already mentioned that I was moving to the Arlington area thanks to the contract with the Coast Guard ending. I have had to walk away from an excellent job opportunity with the USCG as a GS employee, because I will not be accepted into the position as a felon. There isn't anything I can do about it at the moment other than just turn my back and walk away from something with potentially more pay, opportunities and job stability.

This already angered me a great deal but now I've run into a further complication. I was informed yesterday that the apartment I applied to has indeed rejected my application, as I was beginning to suspect after having talked to their investigator earlier, and no explanations on my part to them was going to change their minds. They did this on the grounds that their leasing company policy is they don't rent to felons until seven years after the conclusion of probation terms. I'm hoping they mean the 5 years probationary period and not the 20 years good behavior I was slammed with. As it is if they are going by the completion of the probation I'm still going to be unable to rent from ANY apartment owned by this leasing company for a few years - and this isn't a small leasing company either meaning that my options are limited. I can only hope there aren't more leasing companies in the area with this policy towards felons.

With both the turning down of a USCG position and a rejection by an apartment due to the felony charge, to say I'm angry would be a massive understatement. This has gone too far and I've been well past my point of tolerance for some time. Living with a felony charge I did not commit thanks to the corruption of some ignorant and vicious people is not an option. I've made some decisions and I'm going to pursue those options - I'm not speaking any further on this.

The decision by the Manweiler family to slam me with a felony that they knew I never committed was a mistake (not to mention that they knew it was completely unwarranted and only done as a special favor to them). I was even willing at the time to plead guilty to charges I knew I never committed so long as I was given misdemeanors and allowed to move on with my life. Michelle Manweiler instead made the idiotic decision to slap a felony on me for a laugh. She was already warned that this was dumb idea by my former attorney - who despite his incompetence was quite aware that nothing was going to be accomplished by giving me a felony. This is the section of his letter about the subject where he warns about this very issue (full letter posted elsewhere on this blog):

Even cocaine addicts were smarter than Ms. Manweiler when it came to this decision. As one of them put it quite well when discussing this with me in jail (paraphrase from memory) - "If I wanted someone to just forget about this situation and move on, the last thing I'd want is to give them a felony that will always remind them of this situation and me for the rest of their lives." Nothing was accomplished by giving me a felony except to escalate a situation that in 2006 was actually nothing more than a dumb argument that was running out of steam when the cuffs got slapped on.

If nothing had happened in 2006 both of us would have moved on with our lives and not even given each other a second thought to this day. Now in my 30s, without even counting what was done to me in the legal arena in 2006, I've realized the situation prior to the legal issue was not worth it. So what if this woman had caused harm, lied and spread rumors and other people brought them up years later - in my 30s I would have told them to just get over it and grow up. Had none of the legal nonsense happened in 2006, when running into Ms. Manweiler in my 30s I wouldn't have even wasted the effort to acknowledge her let alone bother giving her the finger. Even with the arrest and criminal proceedings of 2006, with misdemeanors I would not be going through things like this and thus could have just shut the door on that part of my life. Now that isn't an option - for me or Ms. Manweiler.

It amazes me that a valedictorian can be so brainless as to ALWAYS make the worst possible decisions when it comes to this situation. I've made plenty of bad decisions when it comes to the argument myself - but were I in Ms. Manweiler's shoes I would never have been stupid enough to agree to plea agreement terms like that without expecting to make things 100 times worse. It was a bad choice and Ms. Manweiler should always remember it was a choice she made and did not have to make, just as I will always remember the lack of mercy that was shown by her.

"For he shall have judgment without mercy, that has showed no mercy."
--- James 2:13

"Equal Standard of Conduct for Police"

I wanted to add some additional commentary on a recent political issue, but first an update on my post I've been working on. As you can see it isn't finished yet, otherwise it would be posted. Why hasn't it been completed as soon as I had hoped? I have to move into a new apartment in Arlington by this weekend and there is a complication - and it actually relates to the subject matter of this blog. I've rented in two places so far since finally gaining employment after years of being unable to get a job with the false felony charge. Both rental properties stated they do background checks and employment checks on potential renters. I've been lucky; both apartments only checked my rental history and my pay stubs. The first place resulted in having a high security deposit thanks to only one other rental history that I had - back in 2006 when I had to break my lease because the Charlottesville legal system refused to bond me out to save my job. Well it looks like I wasn't lucky the third time around. This time the rental company did in fact do an extensive background check - not just employment but also criminal. Thanks to the felony charge I have a problem now that is going to affect my ability to rent any apartment from this leasing company for some time. I'm not going to go any further into this situation at the moment, I'm quite frankly too angry right now. But as I'm sure anyone can understand, I have bigger issues and that lengthy post will have to wait until things settle down.

I did however decide on including another video by the individual from my previous post. This video was prompted by the recent shooting of a homeless man - essentially shot because he didn't have a permit to camp and didn't provide identification. As an individual who's the son of a retired police officer (my father was in SWAT, NARC and later Detective) I'm well aware that many cops out there are good people trying to do the right thing. But these days we have more individuals going into law enforcement who have no business ever being given a badge. These individuals are also not being punished when making really bad calls or being held to higher standards.

Shooting a 98 year old veteran in a nursing home with a bean bag shotgun (killing him) is a bad call. Wrestling a jogging woman to the ground for jaywalking because of her startled reaction to an initially unknown person grabbing her is a bad call. To shoot a homeless man in the back because he didn't ID himself and was camping somewhere he didn't have "papers" for is a bad call. Too often I've seen worthless police chiefs and agencies cover up for these actions and give nothing but excuses. I see cops violating traffic laws every day that these same cops would immediately pull a civilian over for. I was nearly rear-ended by a cop back when I still worked for Northrop Grumman, because he was riding my bumper even though I was doing the speed limit. The cars in front of me slammed on their brakes and I had to hit mine - what attracted my attention to my right side was the bumper riding cop next to me who had to swerve into the shoulder because he was so close there was no room to stop. That badge only gives you one thing - the authority to enforce the law, not the authority to break the law. Too many police seem to not understand this simple concept today. If you refuse to hold yourself to the same standards you enforce upon us, what right do you have to then try to hold us accountable when we misstep? Before jumping immediately into the "Cause ma authoritah!" stance, just remember that authority comes from we the people and we can take it back.

However, it would be unfair to simply write off these incidents as merely a problem with law enforcers. A big chunk of blame comes with writing these laws that police then have to enforce. No matter what the profession, you will always get individuals who don't have any business being there. When you add fear, adrenaline and an issued service pistol you are guaranteed to have an incident at some point. As Mr. Cameron states quite well, when creating or enforcing a law we all need to ask ourselves one question: "Is this worth taking a man's life for?"

There is one thing I did forget to bring up on the previous video. I'm sure that Ms. Manweiler, upon viewing that video, rolled her eyes at the individual - especially when he jokingly said that ex parte was latin for "secret trial where defendant has no fucking rights". What does a guy wearing a camo hat with a suit know about law right? Well Mr. Cameron is actually a practicing attorney with more years of courtroom experience than Michelle Manweiler. Just thought I'd point that out before anyone assumes this guy doesn't know what he's talking about when he discusses the law.

P.S. - Cute attempt at hiding yourself by using IP's from other countries, but there is some information you just can't hide even with an IP outside the United States. Thanks for playing though.