Surprise! Criminals And Their Families Lie.

I mean, who knew that criminals and their families might be less than forthcoming with the truth about an incident?

In this particular scenario, the criminal in question, Rakim Wright, did it wrong.

Fleeing from police after a domestic violence call and  shooting at them while doing so, then shooting himself before he could be arrested, resulting in Rakim assuming room temperature and leaving one less violent domestic abuser in the world.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to whip up a "hands up don't shoot" false narrative, and a shot at winning the ghetto lottery, witnesses and family claimed that "Wright was unarmed and shot by the officers".

 The police video of the incident shows otherwise: 

Fox 2 Detroit:  Video shows Warren domestic violence suspect fatally shooting self after firing at police during chase

 Yes criminals lie, their family lies, and witnesses lie. 

We will note this was not Wright's first time of doing things wrong, but it was his last:

Wright also had previous arrests for assault with a dangerous weapon, malicious destruction of property, and felony weapons charges.  

"Stop! Don't Touch!" Is Good Advice For Children - And Some Adults Too

You can't make this kind of stupidity up.

So, a fellow with apparently no safe experience handling firearms picked one up that he found, then almost undoubtedly pulled the trigger, all while pointing it in an unsafe direction.

What could possibly go wrong?  Oh, yeah, that:

The Detroit News: Employee accidentally shoots self, two customers at Eastern Market: Police

An employee at a restaurant in the Eastern Market area mishandled a firearm Wednesday afternoon, injuring himself and two customers with a single shot, Detroit police said.

Speaking to reporters at the scene, Detroit Police Assistant Chief Charles Fitzgerald called the incident one of the "craziest, silliest things I've seen in quite some time" and added that the employee had "absolutely no business handling a gun."

Just before 1 p.m. a 52-year-old employee inside a restaurant in the 2900 block of Russell was handling a gun which, he told police, he had found in an upstairs area at the business.

He managed to shoot himself in the hand, and  managed to hit two customers, one in the forearm, and one in the wrist with the same shot. The idiot has a better hit percentage than the NYPD.  

The Eddie Eagle Program would have been a good start for this fellow. Then again any adult should have had the basic sense to not even mess around with something he had no idea how to handle.  

Not A Good Look

Fun window sticker seen on a car today.

Click to embiggen. 

 It says: "If you hit me with my baby in the car...  I'll whoop your ass til the cops come"

That's a great job announcing that the driver is going to commit a violent assault on another individual if an accident occurs.

So, if an accident occurs, and a fight breaks out between drivers, and the driver has this on the car, which driver in the incident do you think is likely going to get charged for the fight?

Yeah, the driver of that car is going to have some explaining to do. 

Announcing you are going to engage in violence where violence is not warranted is not a good look.  That sticker can and will be used against you if things go sideways.

It also tips off others to expect the driver of that car is going to be violent if something happens. They may be a bit extra cautious and then interpret that driver's actions as leading to a physical altercation,  causing them to react more outwardly defensively than the  driver would likely prefer.  It also gives them a head start on a self-defense defense in a fight, after all the idiot driver announced to the world that they would "whoop your ass" of anyone with whom they got into a car accident.

Given the driver of said vehicle was in fact driving like crap, and likely had a phone glued to their ear (which is now illegal in Michigan but still ignored by many), that sticker is just asking for trouble if a fender bender occurs. Given how that driver drove, that is likely at some point.

Don't put stupid stickers on your car announcing your proclivity to engage in unwarranted violence, it's going to make things a lot worse for you.

The Left Continues To Be Mostly Peaceful

That is, if you read "Mostly Peaceful" as in "Engaging in Violence". 

The Detroit News:  10 held in Texas immigration detention center shooting that was 'planned ambush,' US attorney says

KRGV.com: Gunman dead after opening fire at McAllen Border Patrol facility

Note that the was a very organized attack on law enforcement officers with a planned attempted ambush by art least ten black-clad attackers. 

The second attack was likely a solo leftist who traveled all the way from Michigan to Texas, but may potentially have been supported in doing so.

The far-left is continuing to engage in organized violence, and they have the infrastructure in place to do so. 

With Leftist prosecuting attorneys to help ensure charges are dropped or reduced after arrest,  NLG lawyers on call, Mayors supporting their efforts, and lots of funding from leftist billionaires, as well as practice from their riot actions, the Left has both an experienced cadre and adherents that are both well organized and well funded with an array of professionals on hand.

While those on the right tend to state they have all the guns, those on the right tend to not engage in organized violence.  They are often are instead busy with work and family life, and unlike the Left there is no extant right wing infrastructure to support acts of organized violence like Antifa and the NLG. 

The Left is really good at turning the rheostat to increase and decrease violence at a whim and they get away with it quite a lot - and these latest terrorist actions on their part is the result of the tolerance and support they've received for lower-level violence they;ve engaged in and got a pass for.

Other Fun On The Weekend

I got a chance to drive a friend's Corvette Stingray C8 Z51 this weekend.

 

To say it is a fun ride is a major understatement.

You feel like you are wearing the car rather than just sitting in it. The seat is very supportive and the car feels like an extension of you and all controls are easy to reach and use.

Handling, responsiveness, and acceleration are all exceptional and it is a ton of fun to drive. Wind in your hair with the top down and all that.

And, it has more horsepower in its mid-line located engine than the total horsepower of both of the planes in my flying club combined. 

To say it gets up and goes when the light turns green is another major understatement. 

That was fun. 

Now With 500.4 Hours And Night Current

Last night was beautiful out with winds beginning to calm, and many a firework being lofted into the air.

A perfect opportunity for finally regaining night flying currency.

So I headed to the airport and did a pre-flight during twilight and then once it was full on dark an hour after sunset I took off into the night sky.

 

 A few planes were in the area watching the fireworks.

I started on 27R and did three decent landings. Then a seaplane came in to land and another plane wanted to be in the airspace to the north to watch the fireworks so the Tower had me do left traffic on 27R which is pretty rare, as that puts you right into 27L's corridor. But, with no one else flying it was available. so I got to do a left pattern on 27R which felt really backwards, and a great landing.

Then I took off from 27R again with a left pattern and tower asked if I'd like to land on 27L and I said sure that would be fun.

So I did, and my first approach to 27L just didn't feel or look right at all, so I did a go around. I then did it again and did a good landing.

For the final landing I took off from 27L and did a left pattern for 27L and then landed 27R.  I then headed back to the hangar and shut down.

That's 1.0 and 7 night time, full-stop, landings.  

Night currency for carrying passengers is now again achieved, after a very long absence. 

Also, this flight marks my getting over 500 flying hours of experience. That hour flying last night got me to 500.4 hours total, which is a nice milestone.

Flying Friday: Independence Day Flight To KAZO

For Independence Day I flew to a suitably patriotic site:  The Kalamazoo Air Zoo.

Flew VFR with flight following. Pontiac airport was rather quiet at even at 9:00 am they still were using the ASOS rather than the ATIS. Called up ground and got flight following. I decided to fly to KAZO via the HAAKK waypoint so it kept me away from Battle Creek where there was a TFR for an airshow there and would otherwise be directly in the route.

 

So I flew there and it was quire a nice day. Very smooth conditions.

 

Some haze and a layer at around 5,500  that stopped me from climbing to 6,500 as I had planned.

Flew by Battle Creek, safely outside the TFR.

Got clearance to land on Runway 17, and was told to enter a left base and did so and then did a nice landing. Stopped lined up right for the taxiway to go right to the Air Zoo, which was fortuitous and rather perfect for arrival. Did the very short taxi and parked the plane and got let in through the back of the museum and signed in. We were in the second building, the Flight Discovery Center, where they do the restorations and had the place to ourselves in the morning.

Grumman F-11 Tiger in Blue Angels Livery

F-104 Starfighter

 

F-117 Nighthawk - the only one on display outside of a government museum.

There is also an F-86 Sabre and a MiG-15 on display:

 Lots of cool things to see in the building, including their work restoring a SBD-1 Dauntless recovered from Lake Michigan. The plane went down in 1942, killing the trainee pilot and was recovered in 1994, 52 years later.

The restoration is coming along, per the status board:

 Very cool and it is not far from being restored to display condition, even as it doesn't look it.  Unfortunately, it will not be restored to flying condition, only display. When complete, will be shipped off to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial Museum.

We then went to the main building, the Flight Innovation Center, which had more people there.

And lots more aircraft to see.

 

SR-71

V-1 Missile

XP-55 The Only One Left In The World.

P-47

Buchon, the Spanish copy of the ME BF-109

A Pink P-40

F-14 Tomcat of Top Gun fame

 We also got in line and tried the full motion  simulators.

Yes, you can do a full 360 degree roll in them.

 

 Much fun.

Then we walked back to the  Flight Discovery Center and saw more aircraft on display outside.

F-4 Phantom II

MiG-21

S-3 Viking

 

A decent cloud layer was in place.  Time to fly back VFR and play dodge cloud.

Did a weather brief, and pre-flight, and called Kalamazoo Ground for flight following back to Pontiac via HAAKK, and to taxi.

Got all that done and did a nice takeoff.

On connection to Great Lakes Approach, they asked me if I had put the HAAKK waypoint in myself.  I said I had. The controller then said nice job putting it in to avoid the Battle Creek TFR.

Quite a few clouds about.  I was at 3,500 and couldn't get above for awhile. 

 

 

Then I got a break in the clouds and climbed to 7,500.

But I soon had to descend as the clouds further ahead were going up higher than I could climb. So I descended to 5,500 to make a clear way through and maintain VFR.

I got handed overt to Detroit Approach and they noted a large area of heavy (and unforecast precipitation) between me and Pontiac. I could actually see the area of heavy rain. Heavy enough that it blocked out all visibility, and the rain shadow was visible for a good distance.

So, I diverted south to avoid it, and then once past it and with sufficient distance away, I resumed heading back to Pontiac.  I got the weather at Pontiac, and got handed off to Tower, and entered the downwind for Runway 27L, but was then switched to 27R and made a nice landing.

That's 1.4 there and 1.2 back and two very nice landings, and a great time in Kalamazoo.