Of George Zimmerman, Concealed Carry and Not Being a Cop

George Zimmerman went on trial this week in the Trayvon Martin case in Florida.

I don't have an opinion about his guilt or innocence but I do wonder what prompted him to get out of his car that night. You'll remember he called police, reported a suspicious individual, and was advised, "We don't need you to do that," when he told a dispatcher he would follow Martin on foot.

I wonder if he would have been so bold had he not been carrying a pistol. 

I bring the subject up because I've heard a couple of opinions expressed by people who say they intend to apply for concealed weapons permits, if the law allowing them to do so ever gets passed in Illinois.

Their feeling was that Zimmerman did absolutely nothing wrong. He was Neighborhood Watch. He had a gun permit. He was suspicious of Martin. He had the right to check him out "as any Watch member would."

I kept my mouth shut, but they were mistaken on a couple of major points. One, the Neighborhood Watch program policy encourages only the observation and reporting of suspicious circumstances. It prohibits taking action. Two, a concealed weapons permit doesn't grant an individual police powers any more than a drivers' license gives the right to race on the track at Indy.

I think more than a few folks don't understand those limitations. They're like my former shooting range buddy who talked wistfully about packing heat at malls and movie theaters, "just in case there's a guy who goes berserk and I have to step up and save everybody!"

In my opinion, that's a dangerous way to think.

A concealed weapons permit allows the carrying of a handgun for self defense in the most extreme and life-threatening circumstances. 

It's not a badge. It doesn't come with a cape, or place a red "S" on the chest.

A fact I suspect George Zimmerman may now sadly realize.

 

Who Was Wallenda Walking With?

Lots of stories today about high-wire walker Nic Wallenda's death-defying stroll across part of the Grand Canyon last evening.

I missed the actual broadcast. Many of my Facebook friends say it was exciting but tough to watch at the same time. From the news coverage, I bet it was. I'm encouraged by the bits I've seen, however. Especially encouraged by his words as he stepped out on the wire.

"Thank you, Jesus, for this beautiful view."

Wow. That's impressive. Praise in a situation like that. Praise and thanks as he moves along ("Thank you Lord. Thank you for calming that cable, God," CBS quotes him as saying about 13 minutes into the walk)!

Not:  "It was really stupid of me to do this, Jesus, but save me anyway 'cause, you know, IMHO, my life is really important, and by the way if you let me do this without screwing up, I'll make a BIG donation to the nearest church as soon as you let me get off this wire safely!"

Which is what I have said after climbing on the wire of my own choosing MANY times!

Praise and thanks. Hmmm. Wonder if he read Psalm 148, for example:  "Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights. . ."

Just some pondering on a Monday morning. 

The Old Days

If you're writing crime novels, it helps to know a little something about crooks and cops, prosecutors and defense attorneys, guns, bullets, red lights and sirens, two-way radio traffic, crime scene investigation and about a hundred other things you pick up on naturally if you've been a cop or spent time as a journalist covering the police beat.

Fortunately, I've done both. I started listening to scanners in high school,  then graduated to freelancing still photos to the newspaper and a TV station in the town where I grew up. I followed that with a television internship, a television reporter's job when I was nineteen, and joined the sheriff's department at 21. The media drew me back a number of years later and I spent the next twenty-some years chasing crime stories.

I haven't constructed an entire plot based on a past experience but that's likely to happen. I often think about how I might concoct a book from  . . . well, you'll read it when I write it.

More often it's a scene (old newspapers piled to chest height in the kitchen of a woman who died in a house fire), a bit of characterization (a vice cop who carries an Uzi under the seat of his car . . .and writes poetry in his spare time), a street-term ("mope" is a favorite) , or the chatter I've heard from street criminals trying to convince you they had nothing to do with the incident you're asking them about ("Aw man, I was in the bat'room! I didn't see/do nuthin.'")

In my second book, Every Secret Crime, I used the traumatic memory of a double-fatal car crash and mixed it with the recollection of another case where police searched under a bridge for the bodies of two children to create a scene where a murder victim and her car are "hooked," or dragged from a river by a heavy-duty tow-truck.

 A chase sequence in my new book, Easy Evil, picks up on some of the thrills that came from cranking on lights and siren and pursuing folks who chose not to pull over for traffic stops. Frankly, that was one of the best parts of wearing a badge, as well as one of the most terrifying. Some drivers react in the darnedest, most unpredictable ways when they see red lights coming up behind them.


Rewriting history isn't all fun and games. Much of what I saw as a cop and reporter was emotionally scarring. Perhaps the worst part was talking to victims, or the families and friends of victims, or the witnesses to a vicious crime or disaster.

Never have I seen so many stunned, terrified and, at the same time, grieving teenagers than in the hours immediately after the shootings at Columbine High School in April of 1999.

One of the most heart wrenching interviews : a nurse who tried to save the life of a young boy trapped in a school bus struck by a commuter train. Her words, "Just tell his mother, he was a brave boy . . ." bring a lump to my throat even as I write them.

Covering the case of a woman who poisoned, and then smothered, her children to get back at her estranged husband was very nearly the catalyst that caused me to leave the news business.

So when fans ask, as they inevitably do, "Where do you get your ideas?" I have a well-prepared answer for them.

I just remember the old days.

Getting Snookered

Writing a book is a great way to attract those who are eager to snooker.

My first self-publishing experience was terrific, primarily due to an open-minded staff of sincere individuals who all wanted me to succeed. They never tried to up-sell me anything they could not legitimately provide and actually helped me create a way they could allow returns of unsold books ordered by booksellers, something not done at that point by self-publishers.

And then . . . another company acquired my publisher.

Some of that company's recent efforts to rope me into add-on marketing programs have been laughable.

A typical call from them goes like this:

(broadly accented voice, suggesting a call center in another country): "Dough (like in cookie) Cummings? Is this Dough Cummings? This is Geeoorge Potterrr at _____. I'm very concerned about the lack of recent sales of your book "Deeder by the Lake" (real title: "Deader"). We have a number of programs that could assist you . . ."

One of those programs plays to every author's inherent desire to see their work on the big screen. For a mere twenty-grand, I'm told, I could have my book (Deeder) turned into a script and "potentially" considered by Hollywood. Of course, it would have to pass muster of an un-named in-house reviewer first, then be considered by a film agent, who "might" accept me as a client so that I "potentially" could get that movie deal. 

All for around twenty-THOUSAND dollars. I have visions of their "reviewer" being the guy on the phone and their "studio executive" contact a guy in the mail room at Some Big Studios.

I've listened to other pitches offering full-page ads in the New York Times, outrageously priced internet marketing deals . . . the list goes on.

If you're considering self-publishing as an option or if you have other questions about companies or individuals in the publishing realm, take a look at http://pred-ed.com/ first. 

You may be surprised to discover who is snookering who these days.
 

Who's Listening?

Although President Obama and the National Security Agency assure us they aren't listening in to our telephone conversations or reading our email or text messages, they have admitted to using various monitoring programs designed to fight terrorism. Programs that the ACLU types and others are objecting to most strenuously.

In reply, government officials, including the president, have replied to criticism by saying, essentially, "No pain, no gain." 

According to the president, "It's important to recognize that you can't have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience," Obama said. "We're going to have to make some choices as a society. And what I can say is that in evaluating these programs, they make a difference in our capacity to anticipate and prevent possible terrorist activity."

 The most recent revelations about the program come from a 29-year-old NSA contractor and former CIA employee who has identified himself as the source of the leak and tells reporters he spoke out because he realized he was part of a program that was doing more harm than good. In his opinion.

So, on the one hand, we have a guy who, presumably, was sworn to secrecy but decided that, since he disagreed with the government, he would speak out anyway. And on the other we have a government that is spying on its citizens but assures us that it's really for our own good.

It's an interesting dilemma.

Is the private contractor who spoke up a whistle blower? Or, as some have suggested, is he a spy for the Chinese government? Should he be lauded or prosecuted...or both?

In the broadcasting business, there's a saying: "Every camera is live; every microphone is on." It's designed to remind those of us who sometimes speak out of turn that our words may be heard by many, many more folks than we intended...sometimes with disastrous results.

So let's change it up a bit for these more challenging times:

"Every camera is live; every microphone is on. Every email, text, post to Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and Tumblr, and every picture of our children (and our critters, God bless them) , can be intercepted, analyzed, recorded, and filed as a classified document which can then be used against us in a court of law or when we want to take an overseas cruise or go fishing in Canada."

And, frankly, if my government feels that to protect me from a terrorist attack, it has to assign someone to read about my cat's diarrhea,I hope they choose a well-vetted, trusted employee who won't go running off at the mouth.

Is It Gay Bashing...or the Law...or Both?

I'm confused.

In Florida, an eighteen-year-old high school student is charged with two felonies for having a sexual relationship with a fourteen-year-old. Both claim it was a consensual relationship, despite the fact that Florida law says children fourteen and under cannot consent to sexual activity.

We've all heard of cases like this before. Perhaps some of us in our wild youth even worried a bit about the statutory requirements when we wanted to date someone younger.  I seem to recall learning the phrase, "age of consent" when I was about seventeen or so.

While it seems clear that what happened in Florida was a violation of law, and no one should be surprised that a prosecutor filed the heavy charges, what has me wondering is the fact that thousands of people have either joined a Facebook page, or signed a Change.org petition, asking the State Attorney to drop the charges.The term "gay bashing" has been thrown around quite a bit and the GLBT community and the ACLU have also come on board.

But does the fact that defendant and victim are both girls really matter? It doesn't to me. Sure, it's heart wrenching to see the very innocent looking eighteen-year-old sobbing in front of news cameras and worrying that her life is ruined...but she undoubtedly knew the consequences of her actions. And, she yesterday turned down a plea agreement that would have, the prosecutor says, eventually left her with only a misdemeanor conviction on her record.

She broke the law. Whatever the motivations of the parents of the younger girl in bringing the case to law-enforcement, they and the state have the statutes on their side. As the sheriff who investigated the complaint points out, had this been a case of boyfriend/girlfriend, it wouldn't have gotten near the attention.

So why all the noise? Why are so many people ready to turn this into a matter of sex...when what it really is...is a matter of law?

"Hold My Hat and Gloves?" Oh Please!

I've been having a great time watching the historic Inauguration, or Inaugurabama, ceremonies. The media, everyone involved, seems to be enjoying the moment, particularly the parade and now "the walk." The respect they have all shown the President, and their excitement at being a part of history, is evident.

But Don Lemon, once the bad boy of Chicago media, has dsiplayed some incredible arrogance.

Standing with a couple of members of the Pennsylvania National Guard and doing his live shot, he actually had the temerity and rudeness to ask, on camera, the Guardsmen to, "Hold my hat and gloves, will you?"

C'mon, Don. You're a tiny twig in the media maelstrom surrounding the Presidential Inauguration, and about as far down the ladder as anyone could be from members of the armed services who volunteered to help provide security.

What were you thinking, you arrogant ass?