10 die in Alabama shooting spree

[David Guyatt]

Would it be very cynical of me to suggest the possibility that maybe, just maybe, there are not enough active Muslim terrorists to cater to the needs of the "strategy of tension" required in these ever worsening times?

Nah.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7936382.stm

en die in Alabama shooting spree

A gunman has killed at least nine people in a series of shootings across two towns in the southern US state of Alabama before killing himself.

Officials say there were at least four separate shooting incidents.

The gunman fired on homes, a petrol station, shops and vehicles in Samson and Geneva near the Florida border.

Five people - including a child - were killed in one home. Several of the victims are believed to have been members of the gunman's family.

The gunman has not been formally identified, but was named in the local press as Michael McLendon.

The bloodshed began when the suspect is thought to have burned down a house where he lived with his mother in Kinston, near Samson, local coroner Robert Preachers told the Associated Press news agency.

Officials said they had not been able to get inside the house to determine a cause of death and determine whether the woman was the 10th victim of the killing spree.

Shock

The coroner said it was believed the suspect then headed to Samson where he shot and killed five people - four adults and a child - in one home.

"He started in his mother's house. Then he went to Samson and he killed his granny and granddaddy and aunt and uncle. He cleaned his family out," Mr Preachers said.

The gunman then killed one person each in two other homes, before killing someone at a Samson supply store, and another person at a service station.
A police officer told Reuters news agency that two of the dead were the wife and child of a deputy sheriff.

"He just cruised his automobile through Samson and was spraying the people with semi-automatic weapons [fire] at random," the Reverend Mike Shirah, of Geneva's Maple Baptist Church, told the BBC.

Samson Mayor Clay King said the town had opened a crisis centre at a local church.

"I've lived here 44 years and never, never dreamed of this happening," Mr King told AP.

From Samson, the gunman drove 19km (12 miles) east to Geneva. At one point, officers rammed his car and gunfire was exchanged.

RECENT US SHOOTINGS
Dec 2008: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus kills nine people and himself on Christmas Eve in LA
Sept 2008: Six people die in a series of shootings in the north-west of Washington state
June 2008: A worker at a plastics plant in Kentucky kills five people and wounds one other before killing himself
Feb 2008: Five people die and 18 are wounded after a man opens fire at Northern Illinois University
Dec 2007: A gunman kills eight people and wounds five at a shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska, before killing himself
Apr 2007: 32 people and the gunman die at the Virginia Tech campus
Geneva police chief Frankie Lindsay says he was saved by his bullet-proof vest when the man shot at his patrol with an automatic weapon.

"About 11 rounds hit my vehicle," he told the BBC. "Some of the shrapnel from the bullets did enter my shoulder."

The suspect fired a total of 30 rounds during the exchange with police, officials say.

The gunman then went inside a metal products plant where he is believed to have once worked, and shot himself.

There is no indication yet of a motive for the killings. The FBI has sent an agent to assist the local sheriff's office.

Samson has a population of about 2,000 people. Geneva's population is about about 4,400.

The towns are in a quiet rural area, our correspondent adds, and the local community are shocked that this incident has happened in such a place.

[Peter Lemkin]

Would it be very cynical of me to suggest the possibility that maybe, just maybe, there are not enough active Muslim terrorists to cater to the needs of the "strategy of tension" required in these ever worsening times?

Nah.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7936382.stm

en die in Alabama shooting spree

A gunman has killed at least nine people in a series of shootings across two towns in the southern US state of Alabama before killing himself.

Officials say there were at least four separate shooting incidents.

The gunman fired on homes, a petrol station, shops and vehicles in Samson and Geneva near the Florida border.

Five people - including a child - were killed in one home. Several of the victims are believed to have been members of the gunman's family.

The gunman has not been formally identified, but was named in the local press as Michael McLendon.

The bloodshed began when the suspect is thought to have burned down a house where he lived with his mother in Kinston, near Samson, local coroner Robert Preachers told the Associated Press news agency.

Officials said they had not been able to get inside the house to determine a cause of death and determine whether the woman was the 10th victim of the killing spree.

Shock

The coroner said it was believed the suspect then headed to Samson where he shot and killed five people - four adults and a child - in one home.

"He started in his mother's house. Then he went to Samson and he killed his granny and granddaddy and aunt and uncle. He cleaned his family out," Mr Preachers said.

The gunman then killed one person each in two other homes, before killing someone at a Samson supply store, and another person at a service station.
A police officer told Reuters news agency that two of the dead were the wife and child of a deputy sheriff.

"He just cruised his automobile through Samson and was spraying the people with semi-automatic weapons [fire] at random," the Reverend Mike Shirah, of Geneva's Maple Baptist Church, told the BBC.

Samson Mayor Clay King said the town had opened a crisis centre at a local church.

"I've lived here 44 years and never, never dreamed of this happening," Mr King told AP.

From Samson, the gunman drove 19km (12 miles) east to Geneva. At one point, officers rammed his car and gunfire was exchanged.

RECENT US SHOOTINGS
Dec 2008: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus kills nine people and himself on Christmas Eve in LA
Sept 2008: Six people die in a series of shootings in the north-west of Washington state
June 2008: A worker at a plastics plant in Kentucky kills five people and wounds one other before killing himself
Feb 2008: Five people die and 18 are wounded after a man opens fire at Northern Illinois University
Dec 2007: A gunman kills eight people and wounds five at a shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska, before killing himself
Apr 2007: 32 people and the gunman die at the Virginia Tech campus
Geneva police chief Frankie Lindsay says he was saved by his bullet-proof vest when the man shot at his patrol with an automatic weapon.

"About 11 rounds hit my vehicle," he told the BBC. "Some of the shrapnel from the bullets did enter my shoulder."

The suspect fired a total of 30 rounds during the exchange with police, officials say.

The gunman then went inside a metal products plant where he is believed to have once worked, and shot himself.

There is no indication yet of a motive for the killings. The FBI has sent an agent to assist the local sheriff's office.

Samson has a population of about 2,000 people. Geneva's population is about about 4,400.

The towns are in a quiet rural area, our correspondent adds, and the local community are shocked that this incident has happened in such a place.

That's how people have learned to 'let off steam' on TV, in the movies, following the example of our Government, lack of healthcare and mental health services, insane societial values, men not supposed to show emotion - but supposed to be bristling with weapons.....et al. With the economic downturn [collapse] one can expect much more of this. Of course, I believe while some are 'home grown' insanity, some of this is planned tension and state-sponsored terror.

[Paul Rigby]

Would it be very cynical of me to suggest the possibility that maybe, just maybe, there are not enough active Muslim terrorists to cater to the needs of the "strategy of tension" required in these ever worsening times?

Nah.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7936382.stm

Ten die in Alabama shooting spree

A gunman has killed at least nine people in a series of shootings across two towns in the southern US state of Alabama before killing himself.

The domestic military utility of the spree killer?

http://cnsnews.com/public/content/articl...rcID=45206

CNSNews.com

Army Investigating How and Why Troops Were Sent Into Alabama Town After Murder Spree

By Pete Winn, Senior Writer/Editor

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

U.S. Army soldiers from Ft. Rucker patrol the downtown area of Samson, Alabama after a shooting spree March 10, 2009. (Photo: Reuters/Mark Wallheiser. Used by permission. )(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Army has launched an inquiry into how and why active duty troops from Fort Rucker, Ala., came to be placed on the streets of Samson, Ala., during last week's murder spree in that tiny South Alabama community. The use of the troops was a possible violation of federal law.

“On March 10, after a report of an apparent mass murder in Samson, Ala., 22 military police soldiers from Fort Rucker, Ala., along with the provost marshal, were sent to the city of Samson,” Harvey Perritt, spokesman for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) at Fort Monroe, Va., told CNSNews.com on Monday.

“The purpose for sending the military police, the authority for doing so, and what duties they performed is the subject of an ongoing commander’s inquiry--directed by the commanding general of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Gen. Martin Dempsey.”

TRADOC is the headquarters command for Ft. Rucker.

“In addition to determining the facts, this inquiry will also determine whether law, regulation and policy were followed,” Perritt added. “Until those facts are determined, it would be inappropriate to speculate or comment further.”

Jim Stromenger, a dispatcher at the Samson Police Department, confirmed the MP’s presence in the town, telling CNSNews.com that the troops “came in to help with traffic control and to secure the crime scene”--and the department was glad for the help.

“We’ve been getting a lot of calls,” Stromenger said. “They weren’t here to police, let me make that clear. They were here to help with traffic and to control the crime scene--so people wouldn’t trample all over (it).”

Stromenger said the town needed help--calls had gone out to all police departments in the area.

“We only have a five-man police department,” he told CNSNews.com. “We had officers from all surrounding areas helping out. There were a lot of streets to be blocked off and there had to be someone physically there to block them off. That’s what these MPs were doing. I don’t think they were even armed. The troops helped keep nosy people away.”

But Stromenger said it wasn’t the Samson Police Department that called for the troops.

“I don’t know who called Fort Rucker. But someone did. They wouldn’t have been able to come if someone hadn’t,” he added.

Under Whose Authority?

The troops were apparently not deployed by the request of Alabama Gov. Bob Riley -- or by the request of President Obama, as required by law.

When contacted by CNSNews.com, the governor’s office could not confirm that the governor had requested help from the Army, and Gov. Riley's spokesman, Todd Stacy, expressed surprise when he was told that troops had been sent to the town.

No request from President Obama, meanwhile, was issued by the White House--or the Defense Department.

Wrongful use of federal troops inside U.S. borders is a violation of several federal laws, including one known as the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, Title 18, Section 1385 of the U.S. Code.

“Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both,” the law states.

David Rittgers, legal policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said there are other laws barring use of federal troops outside of federal property, as well.

“Title 18, Section 375 of the U.S. Code is a direct restriction on military personnel, and it basically precludes any member of the army in participating in a ‘search, seizure, arrest or other similar activity, unless participation is otherwise authorized by law,’ “ Rittgers told CNSNews.com.

“The security of a crime scene is something I think that would roll up in the category of a ‘search, seizure or other activity,’” Rittgers added.

In addition, there is the Insurrection Act of 1808, as amended in 2007, (Title 10, Section 331 of the U.S. Code) under which the president can authorize troops “to restore order and enforce the laws of the United States” in an insurrection.

“Whenever there is an insurrection in any State against its government, the President may, upon the request of its legislature or of its governor if the legislature cannot be convened, call into federal service such of the militia of the other States, in the number requested by that State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to suppress the insurrection,” the law states.

In 2007, Congress expanded the list to include “natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition” as situations for which the president can authorize troops, provided that “domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the state or possession are incapable of maintaining public order.”

Congress has been clear that the use of U.S. troops for civilian police purposes is forbidden.

“One of the statutes explicitly says that military brigs can’t even be used to detain domestic criminals,” Rittgers said. “It really is supposed to be a black and white line.”

The U.S. Department of Justice, meanwhile, would have prosecuting authority, if any violation is deemed to have occurred. The Justice Department did not comment for this story.

Ft. Rucker, located in Southern Alabama, is the home of Army Aviat

[David Guyatt]

So nice to have the Army patrolling the streets and... stuff.

Get us used to seeing them in everyday situations.

[Peter Lemkin]

The government no longer follows the laws nor the Constitution, they just do what they want - take it or leave it [leave life on Earth]...is their position, increasingly.