Australia: What motivated Cleo's kidnapper?



Bad or mad? Rather madder than the guy says below, I think. The only picture we have of him (Terry Kelly?) so far shows a brown face so he would seem to be an Aborigine. But he is also described as a loner. Which is very odd indeed. I would have thought that an Aboriginal loner was an impossibility. Aborigines are hugely social. So if he really is an Aborigine he is very mentally disturbed indeed. The area is mostly welfare housing and Aborigines do live in the neighbourhood

UPDATE of 5/11: I was of course right. Kelly was an aborigine and was very weird. He was a doll collector, of all things. Pic of him below

A top criminal psychologist claims the man who allegedly abducted Cleo Smith is likely to be 'very bad, not very mad' - as Perth's Lord Mayor calls for the city to 'turn blue' to celebrate her homecoming.

The missing four-year-old was found at 12.45am on Wednesday alone in a bedroom in a locked and rundown house in the Carnarvon suburb of Brockman in Western Australia, after being missing for 18 days.

A 36-year-old man has been arrested over the alleged kidnapping from her family's tent at the Blowholes campsite on October 18, with psychology expert Tim Watson-Munro telling A Current Affair he believes whoever took her was likely meticulous and calculating.

'I think it's someone who's very bad, not very mad,' he claimed.

'A person capable of planning this crime, executing this crime, keeping this thing under wraps for nearly three weeks now and not really caring about the consequences.'

Cleo, 4, was described as safe and well but was immediately taken to hospital for further tests and to be reunited with relieved and overjoyed parents, Ellie and Jake.

In Mr Watson-Munro's opinion the abduction was highly-planned over a significant period of time.

'He probably waited for the right opportunity to strike. They live in the same country town, he's probably thought about it for awhile,' he claimed.

'Clearly to have done what he did, in such a brazen way, to escape the crime scene the way he did and keep a lid on it, to me suggests a lot of planning.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10160803/Cleo-Smith-criminal-psychologist-reveals-exactly-kind-person-took-Australian-girl.html

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Seattle Comes Crawling Back to Its Cops

Ronald Reagan was no economist [He DID have a degree in economics], but his understanding of — and his ability to crisply communicate — bedrock economic principles was unmatched among politicians. “If you want more of something,” he often said, “subsidize it. If you want less of something, tax it.” How simple. And who can deny it?

Had Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan studied up on the Gipper, she might’ve learned this valuable lesson the easy way rather than the hard way. Instead, during last year’s Summer of Rage, she and her Seattle City Council taxed their city’s police officers something fierce. And, lo and behold, her city now has fewer cops and less law and order.

In a Civil Emergency Order replete with 17 Whereases and a single “Be it proclaimed,” Durkan announced her plan to address the staffing crisis within the Seattle Police Department and its 911 dispatch center. As Seattle’s KING-TV reports, “Experienced officers and 911 dispatchers could get a $25,000 hiring bonus, and rookie new hires could get $10,000” — if they can stomach working within an organization that seems to neither value nor respect them.

According to Durkan’s order, the Seattle PD “had 310 vacancies as of July 2021. SPD has only hired 62 officers thus far in 2021, which combined with a loss of 141 officers in the same timeframe exacerbating [sic] the staffing shortage that began in 2020.”

Why the staffing shortage? It’s not hard to figure out. As the Seattle Police Officers Guild, which represents some 1,300 officers and sergeants, put it, Durkan and her anti-cop colleagues “politically betrayed” their police force during the George Floyd riots of 2020. “The result of this betrayal,” said Guild President Mike Solan, “has caused 350 police officers to flee Seattle since the riots. Many of these former police employees left for lower paying agencies just to escape Seattle’s toxic political climate.”

The Seattle City Council’s efforts to radically defund their cops was just one glaring example of this betrayal. Durkan’s handling of the city’s “autonomous” CHOP/CHAZ zone during the riots and for weeks afterward was another. Who knew that a six-block “Summer of Love” protest appeasement zone, which included an abandoned police precinct in the Capitol district, would rub the city’s cops the wrong way?

Solan, though, was far from finished with Durkan and her ilk:

We also have another 100 officers now off the street due to the Mayor’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate and another 130 officers currently unavailable for service who are out on extended leave. When totaled, that is just under half the department gone/unavailable in almost two years. Seattle’s current police staffing crisis was caused by our current politicians and sadly it all could’ve been avoided. This political betrayal will forever be their legacy.

What did Durkan think was going to happen? When a city makes its cops feel like second-class citizens, those cops will go elsewhere. And the results have been deadly serious: In 2020, Seattle recorded its highest murder total within the past 26 years, and violent crime has continued to rise this year.

What’s more, even if Seattle does make up its cop shortage, it won’t happen overnight. Durkan herself acknowledges this, albeit a bit late in the game: “Hiring, recruiting, and training takes months,” she said, “and we need to act now to ensure we can have trained and deployable staff. Seattle cannot keep waiting to address the real public safety officer hiring and retention crisis we are experiencing.”

The city’s police union concurs, but, it says, “Dangling money to recruit new or lateral hires won’t get the job done.”

Indeed, cops don’t grow on trees. Nor do they need to put down roots and risk their lives in communities whose elected leaders demonize them. Had the city of Seattle treated its law enforcement officers with more respect beforehand, it might not now be in the humiliating position of begging them to come back.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/83905-seattle-comes-crawling-back-to-its-cops-2021-11-03

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Anti-abortion law Senate Bill 8 is so complicated, the US Supreme Court must first decide if anyone is even allowed to challenge it

It's been two months since abortion became effectively illegal in Texas.

On September 1, the Lone Star state enforced Senate Bill 8, known as "SB8", which deputises private citizens as bounty hunters to police anyone who helps someone get an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

The bill makes no exceptions for pregnancies that are the result of rape or incest.

Many women have been forced to travel out of state to seek abortions, while those without the means try to self-abort or carry their unwanted pregnancies to full-term.

It's the most restrictive abortion ban in the country, but the law's unique legal structure is what makes it the most difficult to unpick.

Described by some lawyers as "evil, sinister genius", SB8 places the onus on private citizens to enforce the law.

Experts say Texas has designed the law to avoid federal court review and make it near impossible to challenge.

Last month, the Federal Court suspended it, but it was overturned by appeal just days later.

The Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States, which now has a conservative super-majority of 6-3 installed under Donald Trump, has twice declined to block the bill while lower court challenges play out.

It's an indication of how the court's thinking has shifted to the right and sets the stage for the weeks ahead.

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard opening arguments on whether the United States can even challenge the law.

Whether the bill undermines the constitutional right to abortion enshrined in law under Roe v Wade in 1973 is not even at issue.

But the hastily scheduled hearings will set the parameters for the most dramatic month for reproductive rights at the Supreme Court in three decades.

Before delving too deep into the Texas bill, it's important to note the Supreme Court has also agreed to examine another case, this time challenging a 2018 law out of Mississippi.

The Mississippi case directly asks the justices to overrule Roe v Wade precedent and ban all abortions after 15 weeks, before foetal viability.

If the Supreme Court upholds that ruling, it would open the floodgates to a slew of other abortion bans across the country.

Ten conservative states have passed so-called trigger laws to automatically ban abortions if Roe v Wade is undermined.

Another 12 states are expected to pass new abortion laws in the current conservative legal environment.

With just a month until the highest court in the land hears the Mississippi case — previously its only blockbuster abortion case this term — the language used at the Texas hearing could provide clues as to which way the court may fall.

How is Senate Bill 8 different to other abortion laws?
What makes SB8 unusual is that it empowers citizens to sue anyone who "aids or abets" an abortion after cardiac activity is detected at around six weeks.

This includes not just doctors, nurses and health workers, but even drivers transporting people to clinics.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-02/texas-abortion-law-before-us-supreme-court/100585174

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Anti-Authoritarian Authoritarians

Many readers will know that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has issued an executive order prohibiting governments in Florida from mandating that people wear masks. Meanwhile, many local government officials, including my local school board and superintendent, have defied that order and issued mask mandates.

In response, the governor and state commissioner of education have said they will withhold the salaries of those local officials who issue mask mandates. This article explains that even though the local school board has weakened its mask mandates, the governor and commissioner still find the board in violation of the governor’s order and are withholding the salaries of board members.

One interesting thing about this case is that the authoritarian school board is issuing orders requiring that those within its jurisdiction comply, and in doing so is defying the authority of the government that stands above them. They are anti-authoritarian authoritarians.

The school board is saying that they will not comply with the mandates of those under whose authority they operate, while requiring that those who are within their jurisdiction comply with the board’s mandates.

Cases in which lower-level governments defy the authority of higher-level governments are always interesting because of the conflicts they create. The most visible example right now is state governments legalizing recreational marijuana use, which remains illegal under federal law. But in that case, the states are defying the authority of the federal government by permitting people the liberty to make their own choices. They are consistently anti-authoritarian. In the mask mandate case, the lower-level government is prohibiting individuals from making their own choices.

In the marijuana example, states are resisting the authoritarian reach of government. In the mask mandate example, the school district is claiming the right to extend its authoritarian reach, in defiance of those above them in the chain of command.

There appears to be an inconsistency in the actions of anti-authoritarian authoritarians. They are telling people, “We don’t have to abide by the rules imposed on us, but you have to abide by the rules we impose on you.”

https://blog.independent.org/2021/10/28/anti-authoritarian-authoritarians/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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