Running Game - Do Not Care

Running game isn't just about saving money, time, and effort. It is also about reducing "emotional labor," as the younger generations like to say.

Recently, a young man went to the front door of the house where his ex-girlfriend was. He ended up literally breaking in, and was immediately and fatally shot by the father of his ex. This was recorded on video.

Why was he so determined to gain access?

I don't know any the history of that relationship, nor do I know what personality or mental disorders he might have had, or his history of violence.

What I do know is that some people who have otherwise had stellar behavior have lost control of themselves when it comes to relationships, especially when there are arguments, disagreements, or breakups.

They Do Everying But Name the Guy a Murderer - UPDATED

The first suspect in criminal homicide cases is usually going to be either the last person who saw (or admitted to seeing) the victim alive, or the victim's spouse (ah, marriage), A good example of the first scenario is this tragic case unfolding right now in Orange County, California. A university student by the name of Blaze Bernstein went missing, and then was found dead over a week later. This article by Kelly Puente in the Orange County Register cites a police document, referring to the "friend" of the victim:

The body of 19-year-old pre-med college student Blaze Bernstein was found Tuesday in brush near a Foothill Ranch park where he went missing more than a week ago, and records show that a high-school classmate who reportedly was the last known person to see him alive appeared nervous when interviewed by detectives.

That's just the start of it.

Darwin Award Candidate: Raul Garcia Jr. of Lynwood

I could probably muster up some sympathy for someone who steals food to feed their kid and gets hurt in the process. But I just can't muster up any for vandals who are injured or killed as a direct result of the commission of their crime. In fact, I kind of like reading about it. I'm hard pressed to find a more welcome recent headline than “Tagger Struck and Killed on 710 Freeway”. Raja Abdulrahim reported at LATimes.com.

A 20-year-old tagger was hit by two cars and killed early this morning on the northbound 710 Freeway in the Compton area, the California Highway Patrol said.

He's 20 and he's running around vandalizing. Not getting enough coursework at the local university?

Raul Garcia Jr. of Lynwood and two other men had been tagging the center divider and, at 4:17 a.m., they began running east across the freeway, the CHP said.

Garcia was hit by a Nissan Maxima that had just merged into the far left lane, the CHP said. He was thrown into the next lane and struck by another vehicle, which drove away.

Garcia was pronounced dead at the scene. The two others were detained, and all four lanes of traffic were closed for two hours.

What a shame... a shame that a couple of drivers will forever have these memories (the second driver committed the crime of "hit and run" and I wouldn't be surprised if it was an unlicensed driver = illegal alien). And it is a shame that traffic was no doubt slowed.

"LAUSD teacher" at December 11, 2010 at 04:50 PM:

These young men had opportunities in school to achieve and teachers who cared yet they chose to blight the city instead of improve their minds and their communities. It starts at home, with books instead of video games and travel instead of TV. At 20 years old he should have been working toward his future.

"Ome-Coatl" at December 11, 2010 at 05:45 PM:

The sad part is that he died for nothing noble.

No one can even read or understand what he scrawled on the wall.

In two week's time, it will be covered up by another tagger.

Tagging is a mental illness. It is a pathological behavior of defacing the world because they are unable to "make their mark" in an authentic, productive way.

Then comes this by "BOO BOO" December 11, 2010 at 10:59 PM:

REST IN PARADISE KAUE, WE WILL ALWAYS MISS YOU!

Uhm, yeah.

"WC" at December 12, 2010 at 06:43 AM:

I'm trying hard to view Garcia as someone who was more than just a worthless tagger, but then I consider the psychological trauma sustained by the driver of the vehicle that initially struck him and, it's difficult not to think the world is better off without him.

What a waste. If his mother was any kind of decent mother, I feel for her. I wonder if he impressed some girl enough to get her pregnant and thus leaves behind kids?

Copper Wire Thieves Get Lit Up

Copper wire thievery can be a dangerous crime.

A man was electrocuted and died as he and a female partner tried to steal copper wire from an electrical vault in South Gate on Saturday afternoon, police said.

The woman tried to pull him away from the vault when it caught fire and exploded, but the electricity traveled through her body and she received severe burns, South Gate police spokesman Lt. Keith Huff said. He said she was taken to St. Francis Medical Center and transferred Saturday night to the Grossman Burn Centers.

As much as I get a kick out of reading about serious criminals getting killed or injured as a direct result of their own wrongdoing, this story had an element that makes me sad.

Two small children were found in a truck 15 feet from the accident but were not injured. They were being held by childrens’ services workers, Huff said.

It is bad enough that the adults were modeling criminal behavior to these children, but imagine the psychological trauma the kids are enduring now.

Chris Hegnes and a Cup of Coffee

I hope this story is true. A store manager fended off a masked intruder by throwing hot coffee in the intruder's face. Unfortunately, these days, the person defending property too often ends up being sued or fired.

Bad Time to Argue

In what appears to be a self-defense shooting, a 57 year-old woman in Long Beach fatally shot a 25 year-old guy. Kelly Puente of the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports.

Police believe the incident stemmed from an altercation in a nearby apartment complex on 6600 block of Obispo Avenue, and say two men ran from the apartment and then hid on the roof of the woman's home.

A 57-year-old woman and her husband were inside the home at the time and heard people walking on the roof. They shouted for the people to get off their property and soon they saw two men jumping off their roof onto the front lawn.

The man and woman armed themselves with handguns and went outside, where a confrontation took place between the residents and the suspects. When one of the men confronted the woman, she fired two rounds, striking him in the upper torso, police said.

That area of Long Beach can get scary, so it isn't surprising if residents take up arms to protect themselves. It isn't too bright to argue with a couple of armed fifty-somethings.

The Los Angeles Times coverage calls the deceased a "victim", but the folks at that paper don't like cops using guns, and really don't like people protecting themselves with guns.

Sometimes, guns are used for good.

Simon Cowell Makes it Look So Easy

Apparently, in some circles, not being complimentary enough of your buddy’s singing warrants death. From LATimes.com comes this story by Ching-Ching Ni about people who have an interesting set of priorities.- or maybe they are just angry when drunk.

Julian Sermano, 58, of San Juan Capistrano and two other men had been drinking and singing together at a park in 2007 when the three got into an argument.

The victim, Blas Gutierrez, 39, allegedly did not like Sermano’s singing and suggested that he was a better singer, prosecutors said. Sermano apparently became angry at the snub and the two began fighting.

Some things are worth fighting and killing/dying over.

The third man, Maurico Molina, 34, also of San Juan Capistrano, intervened by pulling out a pocket knife and stabbing Gutierrez twice.

Then Sermano allegedly pulled out his own knife and killed Gutierrez. But ther'es more to the story.

At first, prosecutors say, Sermano missed Gutierrez and wounded Molina instead.

You can't make this stuff up.

As Molina fell to the ground and tried to call 911, Sermano allegedly chased Gutierrez through the park and repeatedly stabbed the victim, according to the district attorney's office.

What, no kids joined in?

Hey Ocifer, That Other Driver is Drunk!

From the Orange County Register comes this coverage of an accident in Fullerton, a city that neighbors Anaheim. Adam Townsend reports.

Two suspected drunken drivers crashed into each other at Gilbert Street and Rosecrans Avenue at 2:26 a.m. Sunday. Police arrested one driver, Alice Moya, 20, at the scene, said Fullerton Police Sgt. Andrew Goodrich in an e-mail.

The driver of the other vehicle, Sae Koh, 55, was seriously injured, Goodrich said. He was found to have also been driving under the influence and was cited at a hospital, Goodrich said.

Wouldn't life be a whole let better if drunken drivers only ever hurt themselves or each other?

Kyle Nachreiner - What a Lack of Remorse Looks Like

There was a high-profile criminal case in Orange County, California several years back as three young guys who where politically connected were caught on tape sexually assaulting a girl. Now, one of the convicted criminals was foolish enough to be interviewed, photographed, and videotaped for a story in the Orange County Register, so that he could complain that being registered and labeled as “sex offender” is unfair. Break out the air violins for his situation.

"I went from being in the paper for playing varsity baseball as a freshman to being in the paper for a rape case,'' he says.

Yeah, you blew it. You had a really great launching pad to the rest of your life, and you threw it away.

On July 5, 2002, when he was 17, Nachreiner and two other male teenagers, Gregory Haidl and Keith Spann, sexually assaulted a seemingly unconscious teenage girl in the Corona del Mar home of Haidl's father, then-Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl.

I should note that Haidl was pretty much a political appointee by a Sheriff who has been subsequently criminally convicted himself.

The trio videotaped the episode, a 21-minute movie that shows the friends laughing as they shove a pool cue, a lit cigarette, a juice can and Snapple bottle inside the girl as she lay intoxicated on a pool table.

Geniuses.

In 2006, they were each sentenced to six years in prison.

All three are adults now and out of prison, having served less time because none of the sex offenses were found to be forcible. Last month, they lost their appeal to the California Fourth District Court of Appeal to overturn their convictions and the requirement that they register as lifelong sex offenders.

So they got out early, but he is still pushing his luck.

Nachreiner, though, may appeal his case to the state Supreme Court. He says it is unfair for him to endure the punishment of being tagged as a sex offender until he dies.

"I served my time. I went to prison. Now, I'm stuck with that label."

Yeah, that's how the sex offender registry works.

"Psychologically, it's devastating. It's the worst form of degradation there is."

What an incredibly stupid and callous thing to say, given what someone else has suffered by his actions.

He says he was very drunk, and that alcohol impaired his judgment.

And did somebody force those drinks down your 17-year-old throat?

"I'm responsible for behaving how I did. For hanging out with people I didn't trust ... For being ignorant. She's responsible for going there, for bragging that she's a porn star."

She's responsible for some bad judgment. That does not mean she deserved to be gang-raped.

"I don't believe for one second she was unconscious,'' he says.

Even if she wasn't, and it is hard to believe she wasn't, given what was being stuck in her, you still did a horrible thing. The defense lawyers attempted to slime the victim, too, and he does too...

When asked if he knew what he was doing at the time was wrong, he pauses before answering.

"Had it been any other girl, maybe."

BZZZZZ. Wrong. It was wrong to do to ANYONE. For example, you can bet that if prison guards did it to HIM after he was convicted, they would be prosecuted themselves, and this guy would be suing the county/state.

The three were tried as adults and were almost victorious at their first trial. That trial ended in a deadlocked jury.

Faced with a mistrial, Orange County prosecutors decided to deal. They offered Nachreiner, Haidl and Spann a plea bargain that would have landed each of them in prison for 18 months. But the defendants refused, rolling their dice and going to trial again.

Bad move.

In March 2005, the second jury convicted the defendants of multiple counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object by intoxication. Nachreiner was acquitted of rape and two counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object.

I'm glad they were convicted.

Nachreiner was the one who inserted the pool cue into a limp Jane Doe, both in her vagina and anus. At other times, Nachreiner is dancing, flashing gang signs and mugging for the camera.

Real quality behavior.

Nachreiner was 23 when he got out of Chuckawalla Prison on June 18, 2008. He moved to Big Bear, and worked as a ski lift attendant.

That November, he was arrested for drunken driving. The DUI charges eventually were dismissed, and he pleaded guilty to reckless driving. But he was sent back to prison for five months because of the parole violation. He got out of Chino Prison in April 2009, and moved in with his aunt.

Keep it going.

As with his other jobs, he hasn't told this employer about his criminal record.

Hmmmm, do you think they'll find out? Is that even legal – for him to withhold that information?

Hundreds of comments have been left after the story on the paper's website, most tearing Nachreiner a new one.

My advice to this guy:

1. Shut up. Stop talking until you fully realize why what you did was wrong.
2. Drop the appeals.
3. Behave yourself. You don't want to get arrested again or go back to jail. You don't want to be on parole or probation.
4. Get on your knees and beg the good Lord for forgiveness. Find a good church.
5. Use legal intermediaries to beg your victim for forgiveness.
6. Explain to the media how you were wrong and tell them how you've changed.
7. Work, pay your taxes, and get involved in some form of charity.

Maybe your life can be redeemed.

[UPDATE November 2017: This post is from April of 2010. Comments on this person continue to trickle in, with people claiming to know him now. I don't think it is fair to post negative comments about how he is now, because he's not in the news anymore. If he gets in trouble with the law again, then of course I'll publish more comments on that. If you want to keep ME updated and share your experiences with ME, you can still write those in the comment window. I'm not not likely to publish them. It is my sincere hope that everyone involved in this matter is, or becomes, a positively contributing member of society.]

100 Cops Say Joshua Vasquez is a Tagger

Time for a chuckle. Richard Winton reported in this Los Angeles Times blog entry that an alleged graffiti vandal, in addition to allegedly making the mistake of tagging, picked one of the worst times and places to do it.

A 22-year-old graffiti tagger picked the wrong place Friday to leave his mark: a glass door at an aquatic center in Commerce that separated him from 100 Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies discussing having enough backup when chasing suspects, authorities said.

Joshua Vasquez looked shocked as a throng of deputies began running toward him, said Capt. Mike Parker, who was teaching the class. Vasquez turned and ran as at least 40 deputies crammed through the doorway to get him, Parker said. Vasquez tripped over his own feet and fell, Parker said, and deputies restrained him.

You can't make this stuff up.

"We were discussing the importance of having backup when engaged in foot pursuits," Parker said.

That's when the entire class was drawn to the doorway, where it looked like the suspect was waving at them, Parker said. "It turns out we could see him, but he couldn’t see us," he said.

I want to see video.

But the suspect didn't give up so easily, and he kicked out the rear window of a sheriff's cruiser before being further restrained, authorities said.

Yeah – keep adding to the charges against you.

You know, at 22, shouldn't he have put down the tagging tools and taken up with girls? I hope he turns his life around. If the story is true, he's kind of got a sad thing going.

"Winmancan" commented on the blog with a great idea:

I always thought that a proper punishment for taggers, would be an open house tagging party at their home. With a cop present, any one could enter and tag anything and everything in and around the residence...the structure itself, furniture, pictures, clothes etc.

Sounds good to me! Some of you in rural areas or nicer suburbs don't see just how much blight taggers cause in places like Commerce, California. It is constant and pervasive. So I got a good chuckle out of this story.

Arrested Twice in One Day

Jeffrey Gallo, 32, of Fullerton, California had a bad day recently.

First, he was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault and domestic violence. Barbara Giasone of The Orange County Register picks up the story.

The incident began at 3 a.m. when Jeffrey Gallo, 32, reportedly argued with his male partner in the 2200 block of Deerpark Drive, said Lt. Craig Brower said.

The partner took off in the vehicle Gallo had been driving.

Then Gallo jumped into a second car and collided with the partner – sending the first car into a tree, police said.

Sounds like true love.

So eight hours later, after being released on bond, he came back to get some belonging from the car in the impound lot.

He allegedly told officers his aunt was the registered owner and had signed a release for Gallo to pick up the car.

But police found the actual registered owner, Brower said, who told an officer she had never signed a release.

Gallo was arrested again, this time on suspicion of forgery, and taken to jail for the second time, Brower said.

They should have booked him and released him to see if he could pull off a hat trick.

If you click through and scroll down, you can find some funny comments from the peanut gallery. Some of the best comments get censored, though.

Mr. Gallo: Get your act together. Part of that will be not obsessing about or getting violent with lovers. If someone drives you that crazy, they aren't right for you.

UPDATE (10am 12/16/2009 PST): I checked earlier this morning, and although I could still see the story listed on the paper's website, the links to the story do not work. I wonder if there is some special reason why?

Daycare of the Year Award

Breaking news from the Associated Press...

In Lake Elsinore (Riverside County, in southern California's "Inland Empire"), there was a little mishap at a home that had recently been used as a state-licensed daycare center.

It appears that 23-year-old Benjamin Kuzelka blew his own hands off making high end explosives.

The good news, though, is that the explosives authorities found at the place should take some attention from it also being a pot farm.

Fortunately, no children were there at the time of the explosion.

Suspected Copper Wire Thieves Fried

Corina Knoll of the Los Angeles Times brings us a "stupid criminal" story.

The bodies of two men believed to have been electrocuted while stealing copper wiring were found early Tuesday on an abandoned driving range in Riverside County, authorities said.

So - was it worth it?

A spokeswoman with the coroner's office said the bodies were burned beyond recognition and would possibly be identified today.

Yes, we'll need those names for the Darwin Awards nomination.

"They were attempting to remove copper wire from inside what we call a pad-mount enclosure -- it's an electrical box or structure that contains high-voltage energized equipment," said Steve Conroy, a Southern California Edison spokesman.
The fire caused a 12,000-volt line connected to the circuit to go out of service, Conroy said, and about 1,600 residences in Hemet and San Jacinto were affected by a brief power outage.

What a shame that others were incovenienced.

Perhaps their buddies or siblings will leave a comment here talking about how they were actually involved in some complicated and noble effort to save lives, not stealing copper for cash? Or that since they were "great guys" and never stole copper wire from them I shouldn't discuss the article here?

Call me cold hearted, but I have little to no sympathy for a person who is injured or killed while engaging in some sort of immoral or rightly illegal activity. Have I ever been immoral? Yes, many times, and I deserved every problem that came my way while being immoral.