Grade The Deputy

I'll give him a "T" because I think he's a little torqued up.

When the supervisor showed up, it kind of felt like the scene in Pulp Fiction where Travolta had the gun on the gal, Yolanda, in the restaurant. Samuel L. Jackson, the equivalent of the supervisor, was telling her to be cool because Travolta is so worked up that he might go off. Yolanda had a gun. This guy didn't.  (The guy was working as an undercover investigator on a worker's comp case. Not arrested or ticketed.)

Background on the incident and aftermath.

Watch A Guy Set Fire At Toomer's Corner In Auburn

Someone inadvertently set the one of the Toomer's Oaks on fire. It's out now, but all the toilet paper is burned off pic.twitter.com/0cSGRUBEFZ

— Sam Butler (@_sam_butler) September 25, 2016

No so much inadvertent. They found him.

The Look On That Guy's Face

And In Texas Crime News

And if you were wondering, he is 52.

Story.

(Thanks emailer)

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• This photo was floating around yesterday. 
• 
• There is a crazy heroin/fentanyl problem in Ohio. Seven overdosed and died in Cleveland on Saturday. This comes on the heels of 174 overdose calls in Cincinnati over a period of six days last month.
• That Ice-T commercial makes me laugh every time. 
• LSU fired Les Miles yesterday so they now owe him $13 million. I'd put Art Briles in the top two of candidates since LSU doesn't care about baggage. And in doing so they might get five star quarterback recruit Jarrett Stidham who quit Baylor this summer and has already begun to hang around SEC sidelines. 
• Pretty rare to see such a stance: The Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association posted a letter "vehemently" opposing the appointment of a prosecutor to the (relatively spare) position of probable cause magistrate. They literally called her "unethical." 
• Jerry and 50 Cent together just makes me laugh.
  
• Tributes for Jose Fernandez, who died in a boating accident over the weekend, flowed in yesterday. One I heard was heartfelt but mentioned how Fernandez "lived life to its fullest."  That kind of stopped me down since being in a 30' speeding boat at 3:00 a.m. -- a stone's throw from South Beach -- would probably be considered as living life to its fullest.
• A tweet one year ago from Fernandez:
  
• I really like this photo.
• 
• Insightful Cowboy Analysis: (1) That hit that Cole Beasley took should have killed him. (2) We've got an Over-Celebrator in Ezekiel Elliott. 
• Trump moves closer to Clinton in the polls. This is kind of like the fourth quarter of an NCAA basketball final between Duke (Hillary) and Harvard (Trump).  Duke is now winning by 10 as we enter the back end of the fourth quarter. Duke feels comfortable but there's an uneasiness about that crazy and arrogant Harvard which shouldn't even be there to begin with. 

Random GIFs From Yesterday

Michigan State coach "disappeared" yesterday. (Not edited or doctored. He just walked to his left at the perfect time.)

And there was this girl who became famous for trying to catch a kickoff . . .

Different angle.

She's fine. 

It's Friday. Let's Get Out Of Here.

  I don't care if it is from 1993. That's funny.

 "And if I'm wrong, I pray the Lord will strike me dooooow.........."

 Lessons in leaning to the left.  

 "Hey, now."

 The old "dab and jump"

 I can hear Chris Berman doing the play by play.

Fearing for your life can be a subjectively low standard.

Ted Cruz Sells His Soul

#NeverHillary: https://t.co/hl1xip6Cgv

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 23, 2016

His refusal to support Trump at the convention must not have worked out like he had hoped.

(But at least he timed the selling of his soul for Friday afternoon's slow news cycle.)

His bad boy reputation is done.

We've Got Cell Phone Video Of Charlotte Shooting

Inconclusive but intense.

Journalism Update

'Diastrous consequences' come w/ new labor overtime rule? Give me a break https://t.co/G4VlbxtadD | @mitchschnurman pic.twitter.com/epUAcCzbUo

— Dallas Morning News (@dallasnews) September 23, 2016

We are truly heading towards things you would see this in the film Idiocracy. The Dallas Morning News now promotes a serious op-ed piece with a meme of a muppet.

Trump and Guns

Trump: "They will stop, they will frisk, and they will take the gun away and they won't have anything to shoot with." pic.twitter.com/gGx0rJniU7

— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 22, 2016

How does that not drive gun folks nuts?

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• I've already dropped and smashed a bottle of salsa in the parking lot. How's your morning?
• It's easy to forget that Colin Kaepernick's protest occurred before the Tulsa and Charlotte incidents.
  
• There is no reason the authorities in Charlotte should not release the video -- which they are refusing to do.  And if they say it could "jeopardize" any investigation, they are lying. 
• There were far less officers in riot gear last night in Charlotte and the protests were calmer. I think that tactic works. It's just unnecessarily ramping up the tension when police show like an army out of 300. 
• I still remember that well over a decade ago I went down to the Sixth Floor area on the anniversary of the JFK assassination. (Slow day for me.) Anyway, there were a ton of conspiracy nuts down there out of a total crowd of 300 to 400. Cops then showed up and suddenly started unloading riot gear. A supervisor walked up to the cops and asked, "What the heck are you doing?" And the riot gear was backed back up. No problems ensued. 
• Extreme random thought: How much do one of those riot gear shields cost? (And what a great job to be a shield salesman. "Now, Chief, if you're in a riot and want the top of the line -- I mean top of the line -- shield, the NCC-1701 Deflector Shield is the best on the market. But I guess who wouldn't want the best if they found themselves in a riot. Am-I-right?")
• The Taco Bell in Decatur is being renovated. How do chains handle the employees when they do this? Simply tell the workers they won't be paid for two months -which I think would cause almost all them to not come back? Or do they get paid something in hopes of having them return?
• I didn't initially see this photo of Charles Dean Bryant being arrested by UNT police after the body of the Vandagriff girl was found. But the arrest was for a protective order violation in an unrelated case.

• Hey, here's a tweet from KVIL asking you to predict the winner of the Bridgeport/Decatur game. (It's a bad omen that they misspelled Bridgeport.)
• Really odd deaths in Wise County yesterday when we had two people in two different single car wrecks. Both just simply left the roadway. One happened in the afternoon and the other in the evening. 

Let's Check In On Some News Out Of Tulsa

BREAKING: Prosecutor announces 1st-degree manslaughter charges against Tulsa officer who fatally shot Terence Crutcher.

— The Associated Press (@AP) September 22, 2016

Get Me This Dumb Dog!

I debated posting some Charlotte violence* protests but then I saw the dumb dog. I'll go with the dumb dog.
___________
*In an earlier version of this post the word "violence" was used instead of "protests."  The editorial staff  "failed to maintain the cognitive equipoise that refuses to revile members" of a group simply because of the color their skin. Liberally Lean regrets this error. 

Law Professor and USA Today Columnist Banned By Twitter

While watching the Charlotte protests, he fired off this:

Story.

Above The Fold

Readable.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• The Desoto volleyball team took a knee during the National Anthem. 
• 
• It's interesting that some say the taking of a knee shows disrespect to the military. Those protests aren't related to the military. And do some people "see" only the military when they look at the flag?  Maybe so. I guess your reaction to the protests (and why you protest) might be directly related to what you "see" in the flag.
• The Chancellor of UT used a theme of "what you should see" in the flag in a fantastic memo a couple of weeks back where he encouraged all at UT to stand during the anthem.
• 
• I ended up watching CNN most of last night which was airing live shots of the Charlotte protests. Man, they have lots of cops and lots of riot gear. And, yes, a ton of people actin' a fool.
• Rioters attempted to break into the NASCAR Hall of Fame but were unsuccessful. Thank goodness. Otherwise we would have a modern day Fort Sumter on our hands.
• This artistic photo from the night before:
• 
• Last year, Fort Worth's Sid Bass "shelled out up to $125 million in what many financial observers label a straightforward loan" to Blue Bell in order to save it from a recall crisis. I wonder how he's doing?

• 
• The brother of Jonbenet Ramsey plans to sue CBS after a show involving a panel of experts "concluded" that the brother was the most likely killer. I'm no defamation expert, but that sounds like opinion which is generally protected speech. 
• "A two-vehicle accident sent a car careening into a wall outside the Bridgeport Public Library Wednesday morning." Where's Trump when you need him?
• There was some blurb in the news about Trump supporting New York's "stop and frisk" policy and would want to expand it nation wide. I've never understood that policy and I'm guessing no one else does either. Everyone in law enforcement knows (or should know) what the controlling constitutional rules are in that arena.  No law -- from city ordinance to congressional statute -- can change them.
• My Arochi trial prediction was pretty good if I do say so myself. A guilty verdict but only after many, many hours. That's consistent with an original 90% vote to convict with 1 or 2 jurors struggling very hard with reasonable doubt.
• Anthony Weiner was busted for sexting an alleged underage girl. Last night on CNN, Jeffrey Toobin said it was a crime only if the girl was, in fact, under age. Not so in Texas. If the other person represents themselves to be underage, even if that's a lie, you can get in trouble. Even if it's an undercover sting operation. (Criminal legal folks: The Court of Criminal Appeals yesterday agreed to hear a case attacking the constitutionality of the Texas statute.)
• I'd like to know more about the "North Texas Giving Day" as in what-is-the-administrative-cost-of-this-deal.  

Speaking Of My Random Thought On Self-Driving Cars . . .

Austin police using buses, motorcycles Wednesday to catch distracted drivers. https://t.co/C5koZZQwvb pic.twitter.com/vZ82lRqx87

— Mark D. Wilson (@MDWilsonSA) September 21, 2016

"More than 20 Austin police officers on Wednesday are scouring Interstate 35 in North Austin for distracted drivers.

"Members of the Austin Police Department’s Highway Enforcement Unit boarded a city bus around 7 a.m. near Interstate 35 and Parmer Lane and took to the highway to act as spotters for a swarm of officers on motorcycles to catch drivers using cell phones on the road."

A whole lot of manpower in Austin would be eliminated in a world of self-driving cars. (Side note: When did Austin transform from a place a for hippies to a police state?)