Liz Heidhues 7.16.2021

Richard Sherman is disgraced.

But was Sherman’s behavior that abnormal for a professional football player?

The rate of domestic violence among NFL players is higher than expected for their income level, which could suggest that these athletes are indeed more prone to domestic violence.

A survey of 252 nationally reported criminal cases in one year that involved athletes found that about 14% of the athletes involved were professional football players. This compared with 7% professional baseball players and 6% of professional basketball and ice hockey players.

“They’re (elite football players) trained to be aggressive and somewhat violent on the field, that’s the nature of the game and that’s how they became important players. And sometimes it is difficult for athletes to turn that off when they go back to their regular lives,” said Stanley Teitelbaum, a Ph.D Clinical Psychologist and author of “Sports Heroes, Fallen Idols and Illusions and Disillusions”.

Former Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers NFL football star Richard Sherman needs to deal with the consequences of his belligerent rampage early last Tuesday morning in Redmond, Washington. He is charged with five misdemeanors, punishable by up to 90 days in jail, or gross misdemeanors, punishable by up to one year.

After driving his SUV in a drunken rage through a construction zone and crashing his vehicle, Sherman ended up at his in-laws’ house in a suburb in Washington.

As Sherman tried to break down the front door of his in-laws, his father-in-law had to spray his face with pepper spray through the partially broken-opened door.

When the police arrived, they could not subdue Sherman because of his massive size, brute strength, and belligerence.

The police officers could not use a Taser because of their concerns about igniting whatever chemical Sherman’s father-in-law had sprayed him with.

The officers ended up on relying on man’s best friend to subdue raging Richard Sherman. They released a police dog, who bit Sherman on the ankle, and the officers were then able to wrestle Richard Sherman to the ground and take him into custody.

Photo above: Richard Sherman accompanied by his wife Ashley Moss enters King County courtroom for arraignment 7.16.2021

Here is today’s story of someone who should have excellent communications skills running afoul of the law.

Richard Sherman. Professional football star. Stanford alumnus. Member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and graduate in the Class of 2010 with an undergraduate degree in communications.

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 7.14.2021

Free agent cornerback Richard Sherman has been arrested for allegedly attempting to break into the Redmond, Wash., home of his in-laws after fleeing a single-car crash that left his vehicle seriously damaged, authorities said at a news conference Wednesday.

Sherman, who spent the past three seasons with the 49ers (photo above) and is vice president of the NFL Players Association executive committee, is in custody at the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle, facing charges of burglary domestic violence, resisting arrest and malicious mischief. He was booked at 6:08 a.m. Wednesday and has been denied bail.

Sherman also faces possible charges for driving under the influence and hit-and-run, according to the Washington State Patrol. He must see a judge before bail is set, Redmond Police Chief Darrell Lowe said at the news conference; Sherman is expected to appear in King County District Court on Thursday afternoon, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The burglary charge stems from Sherman’s attempt to gain entry to the house in Redmond, according to Lowe, and the domestic violence component is because of his relationship with the occupants, his wife’s parents. The malicious mischief charge is for causing damage to the door, Lowe said. None of Sherman’s family members was injured in the incident.

Sherman and his in-laws engaged in a verbal altercation before police arrived, according to Lowe, who said officers responded to the residence after receiving a 911 call at 1:49 a.m.

Sherman initially was amicable with the officers, Lowe said, but resisted when they established probable cause and told him he would be taken into custody. Sherman tried to walk away from the officers and accelerated his pace, according to Lowe, who said the officers then deployed a K-9 team to gain custody of Sherman.

Sherman and two officers suffered minor injuries, Lowe said; contact with the dog left Sherman with a minor laceration to his lower leg and ankle area.

Rick Johnson, state patrol trooper and public information officer, told The Chronicle that his agency will present the DUI and hit-and-run charges to the King County prosecutor’s office, which will decide whether to proceed.

The sequence of events began shortly after 1 a.m., when the State Patrol received a 911 call about a one-car collision in a construction zone in Redmond. The vehicle struck a concrete divider, Johnson said, left the scene and was abandoned in a parking lot near the 148th Avenue exit of eastbound State Route 520.

The impact left the vehicle with at least two tires popped, according to Johnson. He said a check of the license plate revealed it was registered to Sherman.

Johnson said the State Patrol was granted a search warrant for a blood test for suspected impairment. Soon thereafter, he said, State Patrol troopers arrived at a nearby residence looking for Sherman, and they assisted Redmond police in making the arrest.

The initial 911 call came from a construction worker who witnessed Sherman’s vehicle leaving the scene, according to Mead.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/49ers/article/Former-49ers-cornerback-Richard-Sherman-arrested-16314299.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sherman_(American_football)

Former San Francisco 49er and Stanford alum Richard Sherman was released from jail following his arrest earlier this week on a variety of charges. He must appear in Court on Friday. His troubles may just be beginning as the King County District Attorney decides which criminal charges to pursue.

Sherman’s actions are exacting an extreme toll on his family as the above photo of his wife Ashley Moss in Court earlier today clearly shows.

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 7.15.2021

Former 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman was released from custody Thursday, hours after audio emerged of a 911 call in which Sherman’s wife said he drank two bottles of hard alcohol and threatened to kill himself late Tuesday night.

A caller to Redmond police dispatch said Sherman was “on anti-depressants and had been drinking,” the report said, and one of the occupants of the house “bear-sprayed” Sherman.

At one point, Sherman’s wife Ashley Moss told the dispatcher that Sherman was leaving. Moss can be heard repeatedly and frantically shouting, “Richard, please stop!” Moments later, she told the dispatcher, “Ma’am, this is a f—ing emergency. I need officers here now!”

Sherman was arrested early Wednesday morning for allegedly trying to break into the Redmond, Wash., home of his in-laws. The incident occurred after he fled a single-car crash, authorities said, that caused significant damage to his 2016 black Mercedes.

King County District Court Judge Fa’amomoi Masaniai found probable cause for four alleged offenses: second-degree criminal trespass, third-degree malicious mischief, resisting arrest and driving under the influence. The first two charges carry a domestic violence designation because they occurred at the home of relatives.

“We’re investigating the circumstances related to these allegations by the state,” Sherman’s attorney, Cooper Offenbecher, told reporters outside the courtroom Thursday. “Richard is thankful to have the support of his family and friends, and we look forward to vigorously defending this case in court.”

All four potential charges against Sherman are misdemeanors or gross (more serious) misdemeanors.

Earlier, audio of the initial 911 call by Sherman’s wife, Ashley Moss, surfaced on several media outlets. The call conveyed her increasingly urgent tone as she spoke with a dispatcher from the family’s home in Maple Valley, Wash., before Sherman abruptly left.

“I need officers to my house now,” the woman, who identified herself as Sherman’s wife, said on the call. “My husband is drunk and belligerent and threatened to kill himself. … I need officers here now. He’s being aggressive.”

Moss said Sherman wrestled with her uncle and sent text messages to friends saying he planned to hang himself. She briefly became emotional while asking the dispatcher to tell police, “Please don’t shoot,” because Sherman said he would try to fight if officers showed up.

Sherman did not have any weapons at the time, Moss said on the call.

Also on Thursday, the Redmond, Wash., police department released its case report on Sherman’s arrest. The report said Moss called Redmond’s police dispatch line and stated her husband was “crazy at the house” of her parents. Moss said her father, Raymond Moss — a 6-foot, 6-inch former Washington State Patrol trooper — had a pistol.

Raymond Moss told police Sherman was not welcome inside the house, according to the report, and Sherman had refused numerous requests to leave. At one point, Moss said in the report, Sherman “backed away from the door and lowered his shoulder before charging into the door frame numerous times, causing damage.”

At Thursday’s court hearing, Judge Masaniai agreed to the prosecuting attorney’s request for a domestic violence protective order protecting Raymond Moss. Sherman also is not allowed to possess any weapons or consume alcohol or non-prescribed drugs.

In February, King County prosecutors and the sheriff obtained an “extreme risk protection order” for Sherman, the Associated Press reported. That barred him from having guns after a judge determined he posed a danger to himself or others.

Sherman, 33, spent the past three seasons with the 49ers after playing seven years with the Seattle Seahawks. He became a free agent after the 2020 season and has not signed with an NFL team for the upcoming season.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/49ers/article/Ex-49er-Richard-Sherman-threatened-to-kill-16317699.php#photo-21242633

Fossil fuels.  The biggest contributor to global warming and climate change.

Greenland is one nation which has decided to take climate change seriously.

In my hometown San Francisco, as in the rest of America, most people take climate change seriously only as something to talk about over a cafe latte.

The danger of climate change is a clear and present danger, provided it doesn’t impact the fossil fuel consuming car owners ability to drive their vehicles anyplace at anytime.

No single issue gets San Franciscans more bellicose than having their right to drive their car questioned.  Perhaps this international City which likes to think itself as progressive should check out Greenland for some inspiration.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 7.16.2021

Prospectors for new oil and gas reserves in Greenland can forget it: The arctic island government plans to stop issuing new licenses, saying it takes the “climate crisis seriously.”

Greenland’s natural resources minister Naaja Nathanielsen said the environment and climatic impacts of further oil and gas extraction had been assessed as being “too high” when weighed against potential financial gains, and was therefore being stopped.

And, not issuing further exploration licenses was a “natural step,” because Greenland took the “climate crisis seriously,” according to the vast Arctic island’s Cabinet led by Prime Minister Mute Agede.

“The future does not lie in oil. The future belongs to renewable energy, and in that respect we have much more to gain,” the cabinet said, stressing sustainable farming of its natural resources such as fisheries stemming from Inuit traditions.

Energy minister Kalistat Lund said Greenland was experiencing “the consequences of climate change in our country every day” and took ” climate change seriously.”

Its parliament, the Naalakkersuisut, was working to attract new investments “for the large hydropower potential that we cannot exploit ourselves,” Lund said.

“This step has been taken for the sake of our nature, for the sake of our fisheries, for the sake of our tourism industry, and to focus our business on sustainable potentials,” added Nathanielsen.

For the climate, but also down to scant scope for profit

However, the report also noted that the exploration work done in recent years suggested low profitability on most of the identified oil and gas reserves, with some even likely to cost more to extract than it would be worth.

Oil and gas exploration since the 1970s involved Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Eni but drilling came up largely dry — despite US Geological Survey and Danish estimates of oil along Greenland’s west coast and gas off its east coast.

Greenland has issued four existing hydrcarbon licenses to two small companies, it cannot annul these as long as the companies continue operations at the sites.

“My understanding is that the [exploration] licenses that are left have very limited potential, Greenpeace Nordic’s general secretary told the weekly Danish tech-magazine Ingenioeren.

Arctic melting attributed to climate warning has also focused speculators on Greenland’s minerals, despite its current 85% ice sheet cover, anticipating that extraction might become easier with time.

But since April’s snap elections and a change in government, with Agede’s Inuit Ataqatigiit party taking power after a campaign with a heavy focus on natural resource policies, political bids to limit such activities have started to pick up pace.

Currently drafted in is parliament is a bill to ban in the future “preliminary investigation, exploration and extraction of uranium.”

Vast island with partial independence from Denmark

Greenland, populated by just 57,000 people, mainly around the capital Nuuk, has long sought more independence from Denmark.

The world’s largest island spans 2,166,086 square kilometers (836,330 square miles), slightly larger than Saudi Arabia or Mexico or Indonesia.

https://www.dw.com/en/greenland-stops-oil-and-gas-exploration-climate-costs-too-high/a-58294024

Liz and Lee Heidhues 7.14.2021

Photos:  Liz

San Francisco’s ideologically charged politics ensnares even its wildlife denizens in an endless Darwinian battle for survival among competing interests.

The automobile established dominance in the city by claiming almost exclusive access to public space.

The Motorists’ vitriolic and emotional refusal to adapt stymies progress to limit automobiles and exposes deeply ingrained turf wars over who has the rights to the City’s public spaces.

Despite gains by livability and climate advocates – such as The Great Walkway along the Pacific Ocean, Car Free JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park, and Slow Streets in strategic neighborhoods – automobiles dominate San Francisco. The intolerable congestion and noxious pollution from automobile overuse flies in the face of climate change and smart growth.

The street fight over sustainable urban living trickles down to the least political of San Francisco’s denizens – its urban wildlife.

Most climatologists agree that humans are increasing the rate of the Earth’s warming by releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Burning fossil fuels, such as overdependence on cars to get around in San Francisco, is causing carbon dioxide (CO2) to build up in the earth’s atmosphere, where it causes warming by trapping the sun’s rays.

Heron sneaks up on gopher

Climate warming is causing a sea level rise. The planet’s oceans rise in proportion to global changes in temperatures. As the Pacific Ocean rises around the peninsula of San Francisco, coastal habitats of urban wildlife will be wiped out.

The Western Monarch Butterfly is disappearing right in front of our eyes in San Francisco. Its population has dropped to a new record low in 2021. (Bay Area county’s western monarch butterfly population hits record low, only 200 counted. SF Gate, Amanda Bartlett, Jan. 2021)

The Western Snowy Plover resides most of the year along Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Though Snowy Plovers currently do not breed in San Francisco due to a loss of habitat, they still are in the sliver of wilderness at Ocean Beach.

As sea level continues to rise, the Western Snowy Plover will run out of habitat to live in. The rising water will push Western Snowy Plovers towards the urban developments along Ocean Beach that do not contain sand dunes and, therefore, are unsuitable for the birds’ survival.

Friendly horse at Bercut Equitation Field in Golden Gate Park

I invite car owners to exit their automobiles and transit the city as I do – a sustainable urban traveler – using your feet, a bicycle, public transit, or other non-car means, to get around.

You may be surprised when seeing our urban wildlife close-up and not from the silo of an automobile, which disconnects you from the planet and its wildlife.

Here is my own investigative photo montage of San Francisco’s urban wildlife.  

The Euro Cup came a year late due to the Pandemic. It’s never too late for Italy which wins its first European championship in 53 years beating England on penalty kicks at a packed house in Wembley Stadium, London

The Guardian 7.11.2021

Leonardo Bonucci bundled in Italy’s tying goal in the 67th minute. photo – Facundo Arrizabalaga

Top Photo – Players of Italy celebrate after winning the final. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/EPA

https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2021/jul/11/italy-v-england-euro-2020-final-live-score-updates-wembley

Liz and Lee Heidhues 7.9.2021

An emerging target in the attempted Recall of Chesa Boudin, SF District Attorney, is Chesa’s Jewish roots.

Anti-Semitic social media attacks on Chesa Boudin are insidious and akin to the treatment meted out to Jews in Germany prior to The Holocaust.

Recall proponents in San Francisco’s Richmond District have come out in full attack mode on Chesa’s religion to bolster a case to remove him from office.

The Anti-Semite overtones in the Recall proponents social media posts on Nextdoor have a disturbing impact on how Chesa performs his job.

The opprobrious comments are masquerading as a raison d’étre for the attempted Recall.

Chesa is proud of his Jewish roots. He said, “Judaism has been a constant theme in my life” mentioning ancestors who fled from the fringes of the Tsarist Russian empire, the result of anti-Semitism and poverty.

A public official’s Jewish background should never be used for the purposes of ridicule and contempt.

Following is a display of some shocking commentary about Chesa Boudin on a social media platform.

UPDATE

San Francisco Chronicle 7.9.2021

The grizzly bear suspected of killing a Chico woman camping in Montana was shot dead by wildlife officials.

Montana wildlife officials believed the bear was the same animal that dragged 65-year-old Leah Lokan from her tent and killed her early Tuesday morning as she camped near the small town of Ovando.

Lee Heidhues 7.8.2021

It’s a tragedy that the 65 year old cyclist died at the paws of a grizzly bear in Montana.

The grizzly bear has been an inhabitant of Montana since long before humans invaded their territory. First, it was the Native Americans who were decimated by the encroaching white settlers along with the decimation of buffalo and other species.

This tragedy is another manifestation of what is happening as humans continue their encroachment into native habitat.

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 7.8.2021

A Chico woman was killed by a grizzly bear early Tuesday morning while on a bicycle camping trip in Montana.

Montana wildlife officials said they were investigating the incident and searching for the bear responsible for the deadly attack.

The local coroner identified the woman as Leah Lokan, 65.

“She was sleeping alone in the tent and the bear just came and dragged her out,” Powell County Coroner Heather Gregory said.

Wildlife officials said grizzly bears are common in Ovando, the small Montana town where Lokan was camping.

“Traps have been set in the area and searching will continue by ground and in the air with the priority of keeping the public safe from another encounter,” the Powell County Sheriff’s Office wrote Wednesday on Facebook.

Officials said a nearby business’ security camera captured footage of a grizzly bear on Monday night, the evening before the deadly attack, and a bear was also reported to have entered a chicken coop in the small town.

In Chico, fellow cyclists and members of Lokan’s bicycle racing team were stunned to hear of their friend’s death.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Northern-California-woman-killed-by-grizzly-bear-16300900.php#photo-21216024

The American government promise of fair treatment for Julian Assange should he be extradited to stand trial is a bold face lie and total rubbish.

Two weeks ago a main witness behind the trumped up (pardon the pun) charges against Assange admitted to having committed perjury. Julian Assange never committed a crime. He performed a heroic public service in making known for all the world to see the perfidy of American government policy makers in conducting its overseas wars and meddling.

The Brits should free Julian Assange and let him live his life in peace.

President Biden may be receiving accolades from some Progressives and the mainstream media for his performance in office thus far. On this issue he is totally wrong and needs to called to account.

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 7.7.2021

LONDON—The U.S. government has given assurances to the U.K. that Julian Assange wouldn’t be held under the strictest maximum-security conditions if extradited to the U.S., a concession aimed at resolving Washington’s yearslong battle to put the WikiLeaks founder on trial on espionage charges.

Mr. Assange, 50 years old, is wanted in the U.S. on 18 counts of breaking espionage laws and conspiring to hack a military computer. The alleged offenses relate to the publication in 2010 and 2011 by WikiLeaks of a huge trove of classified material that painted a bleak picture of the American campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and their aftermath.

The U.S. has also assured British authorities that Mr. Assange, if convicted, would be permitted to serve any jail time in his native Australia, according to excerpts of a court ruling provided by the U.K. Crown Prosecution Service, the public prosecutor’s office for England and Wales.

A U.K. court on Wednesday formally allowed a U.S. government appeal against a January ruling blocking Mr. Assange’s extradition. No date for a hearing has yet been set.

The ruling on Wednesday makes clear that the Justice Department under President Biden has continued to pursue Mr. Assange’s extradition. The U.S. first sought his arrest in January 2017, before formally requesting his extradition in 2019. Mr. Assange’s defenders have lobbied the U.S. to drop the case, including protesting as recently as last week outside the Justice Department’s headquarters.

A British judge in January refused to grant a U.S. request to extradite Mr. Assange on the grounds that he would likely commit suicide if incarcerated in a federal maximum-security, or “Supermax,” prison and subjected to added security measures, such as solitary confinement, which are common pretrial arrangements in national-security cases.

The U.S. has given the U.K. a package of assurances that Mr. Assange won’t be held at ADX, a maximum-security federal penitentiary in Colorado, or subjected to extra security measures, according to the excerpts of the ruling, potentially removing a key impediment to his potential extradition.

A lawyer for Mr. Assange and a spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment.

Experts said the Justice Department’s offer to allow Mr. Assange to serve out any sentence in Australia was unusual, given that inmates usually only apply for such a move once they have been convicted, under the international prisoner transfer program.

“It is extremely rare, and it’s usually based on a process after conviction,” said Mark Lytle, a former federal prosecutor who is now a lawyer at the law firm Nixon Peabody. “To offer it up front to gain extradition, that is a break with the policy.”

Nick Vamos, a partner at London law firm Peters & Peters and a former head of extradition for the CPS, said that it is also unusual for the U.S. to provide broader assurances to a foreign court on prisoner treatment and that it had previously refused to do so in terrorism cases.

The U.K. court’s ruling in January against Mr. Assange’s extradition marked a major setback in Washington’s pursuit of the WikiLeaks founder for publishing secret documents relating to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/julian-assange-wont-be-held-in-supermax-jail-if-extradited-u-s-assures-u-k-11625681049

Reporting the news is an increasingly dangerous profession, particularly when a persistent reporter is on the crime beat or, in certain nations, covering politics.

UPDATE 7.15.2021

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 7.15.2021

Dutch investigative journalist Peter R. de Vries died on Thursday after being shot in Amsterdam last week, according to a statement from his family. The statement was published by the Dutch station he had regularly worked for, RTL.

“Peter fought to the end, but was unable to win the battle,” the statement said. “Peter has lived by his conviction. On bended knee is no way to be free. We are unbelievably proud of him and at the same time inconsolable.”

Two suspects have been arrested so far in connection to the shooting.

https://www.dw.com/en/dutch-investigative-journalist-peter-r-de-vries-dies-after-shooting/a-58218593

New York Times 7.6.2021

AMSTERDAM — A well-known Dutch crime reporter was shot in the head on Tuesday night after leaving a TV studio in the center of Amsterdam, the police said.

Videos on social media showed Peter R. de Vries, 64, lying on the street with blood streaming from his face. “He is still alive,” a bystander can be heard saying. The police wrote on Twitter that he was “seriously injured” and had been transported to the hospital.

Mr. de Vries, who has long been a fixture in the Netherlands for solving cold cases and hosting his own televised crime show for nearly two decades, has said he regularly received death threats.

The news of Mr. de Vries’s shooting was met in the Netherlands with shock. “Unbelievable,” Thomas Bruning, the secretary of a Dutch association for journalists, wrote on Twitter. “This hits journalism right in the face.”

 

Amsterdam — as well as other Dutch cities — has been the scene of multiple shootings over the past decade, in which criminals have targeted either each other or those interfering in their crimes. The nearby port of Rotterdam is one of the key gateways for importing cocaine into Europe, and the country is a leader in the illegal production of amphetamines and crystal meth.

Over the past year, Mr. de Vries, who is also the director of a law office, had been an adviser to a key witness in a trial over multiple killings allegedly ordered by a crime organization. Ridouan Taghi, accused of being the gang’s leader, is a Dutch-Moroccan, who was arrested in Dubai in 2019 and is the prime defendant in the case.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridouan_Taghi

After the shooting, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Ferdinand Grapperhaus, the justice minister, held an emergency meeting with security authorities. This was “an attack on a brave journalist and with that an attack on free journalism,” Mr. Rutte said.

The police said they had arrested three people, one of whom could be the “possible gunman,” but didn’t provide any more information about the suspects. The police did not comment on a motive.

Femke Halsema, the mayor of Amsterdam, called Mr. de Vries “a national hero for all of us,” at a news conference, describing the attack as a “brutish, cowardly crime.” She added that Mr. de Vries was “fighting for his life.”

“Normally those criminals kill each other, but now they are murdering lawyers and journalists,” said Minke Heino, who passed by the scene of the crime Tuesday night on her red bicycle. “They are acting with impunity. This is next level.”

Mr. de Vries is a regular on talk shows and has written numerous books, including one about the 1983 kidnapping of the Dutch beer magnate Freddy Heineken. Some of Mr. de Vries’s prominent cases include the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, and a decades-long investigation into the rape and murder of an 11-year-old boy.

Most recently, he has been in the news for the trial of Mr. Taghi. The lawyer for the key witness in that trial was killed in Amsterdam in 2019. The lawyer, Derk Wiersum, represented the same witness, known as Nabil B., whom Mr. de Vries is advising. The witness’s brother, Reduan B., was shot dead in 2018.

It is not the first time the Netherlands has seen a prominent figure attacked in a public place. In 2004, the provocative filmmaker Theo van Gogh was stabbed to death in Amsterdam, an episode that undermined the Netherlands’ image as a tolerant, peaceful country at the time. In 2002, the far-right politician Pim Fortuyn was assassinated days before a general election.