I’ve watched a few clips of the seminars Kane ran on YouTube and they were snake oil to be sure, full of bad advice to desperate people which largely consisted of using  jailhouse lawyer logic to run con games on mortgage holders. Kane bought into some snake oil himself, as his YouTube channel VictoriaWarrior included quite a few videos on “new age” healing, UFOs and his thoughts on the vast, shadowy conspiracy that secretly runs the world. Here’s a comment he left on his page in response to another user:

My rights are endowed by my creator and not them, so they cannot lawfully take them away. Just don’t volunteer. Everything they, (and when I say they, I mean the powers that be. I know it by their clubs like the CFR, the UN, the Bilderbergers, Bohemian Grove, Skull and Bones, The Queen, Belgium, the City of London, the Vatican, the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers, the banking cartels etc. Wherever they are having secret meetings taking place regarding the people and the planet, there is no-good-going-on. If it were good, it wouldn’t be secret. The media would report the agenda, topics and guest Speakers on the 11 o’ clock news.) are doing is anti American.

They are a bunch of foreigners; imposters pretending to be constitutional government officials while at the same time they are creating fraudulent securities and engaging in money laundering, wiretapping and murder. Sounds like a R.I.C.O. is in order, that’s if there was a legitimate court to hear it.

This may explain why he believed it was appropriate to tell people to lie and cheat their way out of debt. And his love of Ron Paul.

It may also explain why he died. From Commercial Appeal:

The tragic day began at 11:36 a.m. on Interstate 40 when (Officer Bill)Evans radioed in that he was pulling over a white minivan with Ohio license plates near mile marker 275. The van pulled off the interstate onto an off-ramp near College Boulevard.

A few minutes later, (Sgt Brandon) Paudert, Evans’ backup in the Criminal Interdiction Unit, arrived on the scene. Suddenly, one of the two suspects in the van wrestled Evans to the ground. Gunfire rang out toward both officers from a “long rifle” and a handgun, police said.

Somehow, and police aren’t sure exactly how, a broadcast went out at 11:50 a.m.: “Officer down.”

Both officers were killed at the scene, sparking a manhunt that ended in a Walmart parking lot:

At about 1:06 p.m., someone spotted the van in the parking lot of the West Memphis Walmart.

What happened next is still the subject of confusion, one of many things investigators with the Arkansas State Police will have to decipher.

Dozens of shots rang out, both from the two suspects and the officers, but investigators are uncertain exactly who fired.

(Sheriff Dick) Busby and (Deputy Chief W.A.) Wren were hit, with Busby taking a shot in the shoulder and Wren taking three in the abdomen.

At that point, an unknown wildlife officer with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, part of the manhunt, rammed his pickup into the side of the minivan, disabling it.

“If it hadn’t been for him, they’d probably have killed Wren and Busby outright,” said Al Boals, a former West Memphis mayor visiting the family at The Med.

More than 30 officers swarmed the van after the shootout. The suspects’ bodies were pulled out, then thrown on a grassy median and the parking lot.

Some subtext as to why the cops are “confused” as to what happened may be explained by the fact that one of the officers killed was the son of West Memphis Police Chief Bob Paudert. Wren and Busby are older guys who likely knew the younger Paudert since he was young. Readers can put the pieces together on this, but I’m sure you know what you’d have done if someone gunned down some kid you knew.

On Kane’s side, circumstance may have conspired against him. Already knee deep in the world of conspiracy, where tenuous connections can be found between any two incidents, Kane was just coming off another run in with the law. His website has been converted to a memorial site for him and his step-son and on it this message appeared:

Bombshell

Last month, Jerry was stopped on I40 in New Mexico and arrested for not having a drivers license.  He recently completed his administrative process for the unlawful arrest.

Coincidence?

I40 sounds like the good ole boy  stretch-of-highway, where if they spot you, and they already dont like you, you’could get killed.  Even if you are just a Dad and son with your two dogs on your way home, minding your own business.

Let’s face it. If there wasn’t a “traffic stop” no one would be dead!

If it’s true that Kane was stopped before, he may have felt threatened by another stop and reacted like a person who thinks cops work for “them.” This is a case of Death by Trutherism.

Kane was driving around in a van he apparently stole from a long abandoned White Nationalist church which some are saying means he was himself a White Supremacist. But since he subscribes to and “friends” many African-Americans on his YouTube page and does not host any racist material I think that’s unlikely. Since he killed a couple of cops I don’t see a reason to try to smear him further with Nazi accusations. Cop killers are bad enough, no?

But an interesting side note to that piece of the story is that the late reverend for that racist church, one Harold R. Redfeairn, himself shot a cop in a traffic stop in 1979 according to this report on Commercial Appeal.

Gateway Pundit is covering this story, but I doubt there will be a satisfactory conclusion to this story. Everyone involved in the original gun battle is dead, and that fact itself will give rise to more conspiracy theories and perhaps more Jerry Kanes.

DETROIT – An FBI agent who led the investigation of nine Michigan militia members charged with trying to launch war against the federal government couldn’t recall many details of the two-year probe yesterday during questioning by defense lawyers.

Even the judge who must decide whether to release the nine until trial was puzzled.

“I share the frustrations of the defense team … that she doesn’t know anything,” U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said after agent Leslie Larsen confessed she hadn’t reviewed her notes recently and couldn’t remember specific details of the case.

Judge Roberts is hearing an appeal of another judge’s order that has kept members of so-called Hutaree militia in jail since their arrest in late March.

The prosecutors actually argued that the nine defendants had no legal right call Larsen to the stand, but the judge disagreed and hilarity ensued:

The nine lawyers asked specific questions about each defendant. Ms. Larsen said she had not listened entirely to certain recordings made by an undercover agent who infiltrated the group.

She said that because they were still being examined, she didn’t know if weapons seized by investigators last month were illegal.

At other times, Ms. Larsen couldn’t answer questions because she said she hadn’t reviewed investigative reports.

Defense lawyer William Swor asked if the No. 1 defendant, Hutaree leader David Stone, had ever instructed anyone to make a bomb.

“I can’t fully answer that question,” the agent replied.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel defended Ms. Larsen, telling the judge it wasn’t clear until Monday that she would testify.

Judge Roberts, however, said she told the government to be prepared last week.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet played an audiotape of what he said were several militia members talking freely about killing police.

The participants talked over each other, often laughed and made goofy noises and disparaging remarks about law enforcement.

Sounds like a solid case. The lesson here is this: don’t be a douchebag and make jokes about fighting “the New World Order” to your new Internet friend when the government needs to prove a point about violence from New World Order believers. Even if these guys get off they are going to be bankrupt. Even a bad case that the state can’t win usually ruins the lives of the people who get caught up in it.

Even the government admits that this entire prosecution is based around one incident, which Saxon’s lawyers say was at a flea market, in which he “willfully transferred, sold, traded and delivered a firearm to a person known to the grand jury” who didn’t have a Federal Firearms License. But frankly, the almost fact free reporting on this makes me wonder if Saxon’s crime wasn’t sitting at some flea market and selling a gun to some ATF agent who was pretending to be from North Carolina. Either that or we’re supposed to believe a former police chief was dumb enough to cross state lines and sell his guns at flea markets outside of South Carolina.

But in either case is that enough to put an old man in jail for 10 years?

The news reports make it sound like Jowers and his compatriots were either too high strung for the job or just weren’t prepared to deal with the people you meet while on patrol but Jowers has pleaded guilty to depriving a man of his civil rights after roughing up an intoxicated homeless man.

From WYFF:

GREENVILLE, S.C. — One of four former Greenville police officers accused of improperly handling a homeless man in their custody has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of deprivation of civil rights.

Acting U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald said that prosecutors reached a plea agreement with Matthew Scott Jowers.

On Tuesday, Jowers admitted that on Sept. 13, 2009, “while acting under the color of law” he did “grab, push and improperly restrain a person in custody.”

Jowers claims that a drunken homeless guy was raising hell even after he was cuffed so Jowers slammed the man into the patrol car before placing him in the back. When the homeless man continued to raise hell (understandably after being roughed up) Jowers jumped in the back and throttled him.

Hey, we’ve all wanted to choke some of the drunks on the streets of Greenville but the police need to follow the law, not dispense street justice to someone who may or may not deserve it.

One of Jowers compatriots is expected to plead guilty pretty soon. In a move sure to make the local CopWatch goons swoon onto the patchouli and “fluid’ stained couches in Coffee Underground, Jowers was allowed to plead guilty without being indicted which means … something.

Technically, the officers are not indicted, they are pleading guilty to “information.”

I’m glad the reporters took the time to clear that up. But the result is that Jowers pleaded to a misdemeanor and faces a maximum of one year in jail.

On the other hand I’ve gotten a couple of emails from people saying that the homeless in downtown Greenville and some other areas are out of control and we shouldn’t “tie police officers hands.” I feel your pain but cops can’t be allowed to rough up any person who’s already been cuffed and controlled. That said, I have noticed a much more aggressive panhandling population around here. I would put forward that this is more due to the ever growing drug culture than homelessness, which is often a symptom of drug addiction or alcohol dependence.

From WYFF:

EASLEY, S.C. — A South Carolina school board has voted to eliminate more than 100 positions because of funding problems.

The Pickens County school board voted Monday to cut 105 positions for the coming school year, according to district representative Julie Thompson. She confirmed the cuts would save more than $2 million.

In addition to eliminating positions, the board also approved reduction in days for some employees, Thompson said. The reductions will mean a pay decrease for those affected, she said.

Superintendent Henry Hunt said the plan is not final. Hunt said state funding might require further reductions or could ease the cuts.

District officials said they had to act now because they have a deadline to offer contracts for the coming year.

Two trustees voted against the cuts, one saying salaries of top employees should be cut first.

Yeah, good luck with that happening. According to The Independent Mail the positions cut will include:

nearly 30 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions in the teacher ranks, including 10 at the elementary schools, 14.5 at the middle schools, and five at the high schools,

18 elementary literacy specialist positions,

two reading interventionist positions,

16 media clerk positions,

a reduction of 8.6 FTEs at the central office,

a loss of 6.25 FTEs at the Alternative Education program,

seven guidance counselor FTEs

Since the school systems here helped create a state where adult illiteracy is around 15% (and that is widely considered an improvement!) I’m not crying over this. But once the school budgets are trimmed to the bone, what other cuts are coming down the pike?

Look for cuts in Law Enforcement if the economic picture here doesn’t change in the next year, and frankly looking at the financial data (including the new housing numbers) I am not hopeful. As all the states get crunched by the coming commercial real estate market implosion and the second wave of A.R.M. resets local governments are going to be forced to tighten their belts and trim down civil employees, including cops, and make other desperate moves like early releases of prisoners a la California.

The disturbance continued when Greenville deputies responded, Greenville County Deputy Melissia McKinney explained.

When two deputies responded to a domestic violence call, McKaig allegedly kicked and pushed the officers who were trying to separate the two, she said. As a result of the action toward the deputies, McKaig was later charged with two counts of resisting arrest and assaulting the two lawmen, she said.

He was terminated from his deputy position immediately.

According to Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, McKaig had been assigned a deputy with the sheriff’s office but was terminated from that position after the disturbance call was received. Previously, McKaig had been a deputy in the Judicial Services Division, authorities said.

McKaig was employed by the Sheriff’s Office from 1996 through 2003 and from 2005 until Saturday.  Records show he is being held at Greenville County Detention Center on charges of  pointing and presenting a firearm at a person, aggravated assault, and two counts of assault and battery on a police officer while resisting arrest.

There’s plenty of meat in this 140+ page report, but the main takeaway is that while we have relatively low levels of gang crime in the state, what we have is alarmingly violent and on the rise.  Overall, gang violence represented 1 percent of violent crimes reported in 2007.  The full report is embedded below. (Note to email and RSS subscribers: you may have to visit Greenville Dragnet to view the complete report.)

2009 Gang Report South Carolina – how much how bad?

In an effort to crack down on those who violate handicapped parking placards and parking spaces, a new law goes into effect January 1st, 2010.

The Department of Motor Vehicles will include a picture of the disabled person on the placard.

Lawmakers say the change will make it easier to know if a driver is actually disabled.

People with current placards can keep them until they expire, but will then have to get a replacement with their photo. The deadline for that is January 1st, 2013.

No word yet on how exactly local authorities plan to enforce this new measure.  My guess is that we should file this under “nice, but meaningless gestures.”

From Fox Carolina:

MAULDIN, S.C. — Authorities said that a man who prompted a standoff at an apartment complex in Mauldin was arrested just before noon on Thursday., Greenville County deputies said.

Matt Armstrong, public information officer for the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, said that deputies along with U.S. Marshals were following 28-year-old Zachary Arnold in a car just before they were to serve him with an arrest warrant. They said that Arnold pulled in to the Vinings apartments on Butler Road, jumped out of the car and ran into an apartment.

Armstrong said that Arnold barricaded himself in the apartment. He said that because Arnold was believed to be armed and has a violent past, authorities backed off and called the SWAT team to the scene.

Arnold surrendered peacefully about an hour after the standoff began, Amrstrong said.

Armstrong said that Arnold was wanted on charges of criminal sexual conduct and accessory after the fact of murder.

WYFF has the same details but also a map pin pointing The Vinings for people unfamiliar with the area.

The Vinings at Brookfield Apartments is how the complex is referred to online. It is considered fairly upscale for the area, with some realtor sites claiming the average income is almost $70,000 dollars due mostly to the influx of non-natives fleeing higher tax states like New York and New Jersey.  However, Mauldin, according to some residents, has been seeing an uptick in drug dealing and gang related activity.

The word on the street is that some of the newer residents have brought their bad habits with them, funding small time drug dealers with big time money. Mauldin recently made crime news with the arrest of a meth cooking couple and the Bridges Road Shooting which was a culmination of a violent crime spree by local thug Willaim Anthony Butts.