Busy Day
“Pike-tte”, the woman who thinks that pepper spray is as important as a cart when shopping, has turned herself in. I wonder if someone let her in on the “secret” that there are more cameras taping in a Walmart electronics department than a Superbowl game? The police haven’t released her name or the charges.
While all of the retail groups are talking up the great day Friday was, I had to go out today, and there were no crowds anywhere. As I drove passed Walmart I noticed that their parking lot was emptier than a regular Saturday.
Would you believe that corrosion in a DSL wall jack will mess up your telephone, and not affect the DSL? I could call out, but couldn’t receive calls on my landline, and that was the problem. I installed two separate cables to avoid having filtering problems, but for some reason, high resistance on the DSL line blocks the ringing on the telephone line, while leaving the DSL functional. Weird …
I finished up the majority of the outside lights. They were turned on Thanksgiving night, but there were minor problems, as always. Everything is LED now, so they should just work after the timers get sorted out.
8 comments
“high resistance on the DSL line blocks the ringing on the telephone line, while leaving the DSL functional. Weird …”
Not really. Ringing is a voltage-specific activity, if you don’t get 40 volts AC when the ring signal comes in, you don’t get ringing. So your DSLAM puts out 90 volts, you have 2.3 ohms of resistance, you end up with 39 volts, you got no ringing. Whereas you’ll slow down your DSL by having less overhead for QAM code sets, but you’ll still be able to get signal through.
““Pike-tte”, the woman who thinks that pepper spray is as important as a cart when shopping, has turned herself in.”
Well, *someone* turned herself in. Note that pepper spray in California is classified as a weapon and regulated by the Bureau of Firearms. California, like most states, classifies “assault with a weapon” as a felony, not a misdemeanor, and has significantly higher penalties compared with simple misdemeanor assault (which is usually a $1K fine plus 6 months probation for first offenders here), with a possible 1 to 10 year sentencing enhancement if the weapon was actually used. Then there’s a separate “misuse of pepper spray” statute which also applies… in other words, this lady is in for a world of hurt if it turns out that witnesses identify her as Ms. Pikette.
BTW, you were wrong about cops not attacking Black Friday shoppers. The funny part? Buckeye, AZ. I’m quite familiar with that berg. Their cops are all hired via cronyism, there is no civil service system there, every single cop is related to some top administrator or city council member current or past. usually harmless ’cause Buckeye ain’t exactly East Oakland, but at least once it had tragic results when a Barney Fife clone managed to shoot a woman in the back with his one bullet and ended up fired and on trial for murder (he got off on the murder charge ’cause the jury said the prosecution didn’t prove intent rather than incompetence, but he still stayed fired, and the woman still stayed dead). So anyhow, AZ is like most states, it’s not shoplifting until the perp starts to leave without paying, if he stuffs half the store down his shirt he still ain’t shoplifting until he starts to leave without paying, he’s just a shopper with weird habits. I knew some kids who had fun with this, they’d stuff goods down their shirts just to watch loss prevention tail them around the store, then they’d put the stuff back on the shelf or go through the checkout and actually pay for it. Loss prevention could never work out whether they were being tested by the store or whether they were being toyed with by juvenile delinquents, it drove’em nuts. But back to Buckeye Wal-Mart. If loss prevention decides they’re not interested in playing, they can of course confront the suspect, demand that he give them the goods, and then escort him out of the store as persona non grata. The store is private property after all, and Arizona law actually gives merchants arrest powers over shoplifters, if you have probable cause (e.g., you have videotape or observed the suspect secreting goods upon his person then later observed the person leaving the store without paying for those goods) then you (loss prevention) can legally detain that person without facing charges of false arrest or illegal detention. And if Wal-Mart hired some off-duty Buckeye cops and assumed they were as competent as typical loss prevention specialists (and believe me, these guys *are* specialists with extensive training dealing with shoplifting, they’re not just your typical rent-a-cop)… oh boy. Barney Fife meets Black Friday. What a joy.
I guess my point is that the DSL arrives at the NIC as a separate pair, and I ran a separate cat 5 from the NIC to the jack, rather than using the empty yellow/black lines on the phone cable. I have two pairs coming into that NIC and two cables going out. They must have bridged something in the NIC itself.
Pepper spray is licensed in New York. Unlicensed possession is a B misdemeanor [max $500 fine and/or 6 months in jail] but use is assault with a ‘dangerous instrument’ and is felony time. The way the law is worded, if the DA want to, in New York she could be charged with robbery, with those who were sprayed as the victim rather than the store, assuming those sprayed wanted an XBOX and had to pay more for it because of her actions. Most would keep it clean, happy with 10 assault charges that Walmart will have on tape.
That was the grandfather who stuffed a game in his waistband while helping his grandchild, and was dumped head down on the concrete, right? Yeah, New York is like California, you have to exit the store before it’s a theft, and those games are tagged to set off the alarms. Technically the cop wasn’t on-duty, and Walmart will not get involved because it violated their written policy on shoplifting. They know a law suit when they see it.
If you want a fight, arrest an innocent man.
First we had the Lardass Desk Jockey “Pepper Pike”, now we’re getting Pepper Piketts. I guess Orangeman Bonner will be spraying the Dems to get his way next. Come to think of it, Pepper Pike’s next job may be Sargent at Arms of the House of Representatives.
Can’t happen, Dave, that would be justice, and it would take work, something the House GOP is allergic to.
Turns out that the LAPD is now claiming that “Pike-ette” may have been acting in self defense. WTF? That 5 year old kid she pepper-sprayed was threatening her somehow? Has the LAPD lost their collective minds?!
– Badtux the Baffled Penguin
The LAPD lost its mind many years ago, but her lawyer would certainly claim self-defense. It depends on what the video shows.
In New York, she might get a pass on one charge, but ‘reckless endangerment’ would certainly apply to the others.
There is so much violence associated with these ‘scrums’ that they should be banned. You could do the same thing with a coupon on the register tape at check out, which would remove the mass attacks, and the damage to the stores and merchandise. If you don’t want the item on the tape, trade it or sell it to someone who does. Capitalism in action.
If her lawyer claimed self defense, I’d understand. But the LAPD hasn’t even finished interviewing all the witnesses yet, and they’re rushing to give her lawyer ammo? WTF?!
That is very weird, and should generate a nasty call from the DA’s office. You don’t undercut the case before the DA gets it. DAs get very testy about that sort of thing. It is a high profile case because of national media attention, so it carries weight for a prosecutor.