[GBullet]

I have a distant cousin who is a career criminal. He's violent and unpleasant. Members of his own family have taken out restraining orders against him.

Today my family was tormented by his latest b.s. crime. He called my grandmother and started asking her questions, dropping hints that he intends to commit identity theft on family members. He called her from the family member's house that he had broken into in Tampa, despite the restraining order to keep him away from that relative!

He's never off parole before he commits the next crime. I don't even know of all of his crimes. Apparently they include armed bank robbery and drug crimes. He's a bad egg and Florida judges keep turning him loose.

He does exhibit a curious mix of behaviors that seem common to many career criminals:

1) He constantly thinks of his next crime (going straight must not be an option).

2) He sees everyone, including his own family as a pool of waiting victims.

3) He laughs at you if you tell him that he will get caught again. It's almost like he dares you to try and get him in trouble. This seems to me to be his "in your face" way of making you feel helpless.

To me this is a form of terrorism.

 

[Terry G]

Extremely Bad Relative

Is he on "paper"? as we say in the law enforcement community. If he is on state parole or supervision, it's a very easy matter to contact his parole officer or releasing authority, (the prison he was released from) and notify the officer in charge of his behaviour. Or call you local law enforcement agency,( county is better than local) and alert them of the problem. You don't have to be afraid of this jerk, I would contact your county District Attorney also. They work for YOU. That's what they get elected and paid for. DON"T be terrorized by him. Your help is a phone call away. Do it NOW!

 

[Rich Z]

Yeah, but if it DOESN'T work, do you then have a real problem on your hand? Someone of this frame of mind now pissed at YOU.

 

[Terry G]

Yeah, but if it DOESN'T work, do you then have a real problem on your hand? Someone of this frame of mind now pissed at YOU.

I disagree with than line of thought Rich Z. We are not talikng about a civilian "stalker" here, we're talking about a convicted felon, probably on parole or supervision. He can legally can be snapped up because his parole officer or community programs manager doesen't like the way he parts his hair. A phone call to his PO or the county district attorney, WILL get results. And trust me, I have seen it, if no action is taken the wrath of God falls on them. Call your county DA, if his secretary tells you he is busy, call back again, and tell her you NEED to talk to him. He will call you back. If this happens more than twice tell his secretary you are documenting the calls and you have a serious situation on your hands. They will be afraid to NOT call you back. Hey Guy's, I did do this for a living for twenty three years, the system CAN work!

 

[GBullet]

Re: Extremely Bad Relative

Is he on "paper"? as we say in the law enforcement community.

I don't know. This afternoon we began researching his crimes. We knew about the drug crimes, but we did not know about the bank robbery. Tomorrow we hope to learn whether they were state or federal.

You don't have to be afraid of this jerk, I would contact your county District Attorney also. They work for YOU. That's what they get elected and paid for. DON"T be terrorized by him. Your help is a phone call away. Do it NOW!

I'm not afraid of him, nor is much of my family. I do sense that my grandmother is afraid of him. Criminals like my cousin make my fur stand up. He could be the poster child of three strikes laws. He shows no remorse.

I figure that the long distance phone records of the house that he broke into, plus fingerprints he left there should be pretty good evidence.

Based on your advice, as soon as I know his parole officer's name, I will call him.

Thanks, Terry.

 

[Terry G]

To Rich Z

I may be belaboring this point, but my blood pressure does rise a bit when it's implied that we in law enforecment don't do our jobs. I have had numerous instances where I put myself on the line, but one that sticks in my mind about "being there" for people happened when I was called for an escape from a Federal Prison. The escapee was a high roller type with plenty of money, and we were alerted that he almost surely had outside help. I was at a post in a rural area, when the owners of a mobile home pulled up and were informed of the situation. The eldery man and his wife were afraid to go in their home, so I escorted them inside. The lady stated that the cabinets and closet doors were open and they had not left them that way. I jumped behind the refrigeratior and told them to get out. The man was in a wheelchair. I had drawn my weapon and thought though to myself alright, As**H**le, this where you earn your pay. My partner was at the door, and I told him to get the people out of the way. I cleared the trailer, noticing the plauque on the wall said the man in the wheelchair had received the Silver Star and Purple Heart for action in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. Every thing came out alright, as the inmate was hiding INSIDE the prison, but who knew? Anyway, once in a while we quit eating donuts and do our jobs..

 

[Aslan]

Terry, many of us do appreciate the Law Enforcement community.

Unfortunately, all it takes is one encounter with a "bad" cop or with one with an "attitude", and the image of all leo's is affected.

People tend to lose sight of the fact that "cops are people too", and just like the rest of the population, some people are good people, and some people are jerks, with everyone else falling somewhere between the two.

I wouldn't want to be a leo in this day and age. Too many people with no respect for themselves, let alone for the law.

Too many lawyers, too many people coddling the bad guys.

My hat's off to you, and thank you for your service to your community.

:beer:

:devil:

 

[Rich Z]

Terry,

I guess my experiences have been with the wrong type of LEO.

I have found that going to anyone in law enforcement about bad checks is a waste of time. I have an outstanding warrant out for the arrest of an Alabama resident that has been outstanding for years and nothing will ever come of it. I burst out laughing out loud when the DA said I needed a copy of the drivers license or a social security number of the guy before they would issue the warrant. Amazingly enough, a friend of mine helped me to get this information. He worked in the collections field. But if someone breaks into your house, remember to ask the gentleman for that information.

I had a girl pass me a bad check in Richmond, VA over which I contacted EVERYONE from the commanding officer of the base her husband was stationed at in North Carolina to the FBI, and they all just passed the buck. It took someone else living in Richmond that she also screwed to get her nailed. But I never got my money back from her.

I have three bad checks from a guy in California that I could not even get anyone from the DA on down to even respond to me about it in anything but a condescending manner. More passing the buck and the impression that this was not worth their time and effort.

I had to set up a website in my business to help thwart the bad guys when it became obvious that we are on our own. Peer pressure and exposure are the only thing that appears to work to shut these people down.

Yeah, I know, these are not guns-a-blazing events, but people are losing money to bad guys and the justice system basically could not care less about it.

Quite frankly, and in my opinon, any criminal can get away with most anything if they keep their crimes small enough that it is more costly to prosecute them then the loss incurred, and the burden of that expense to pursue the bad guy falls on the victim. I have had LEOs flat out tell me that they won't even consider touching a case where the loss is less than $100K. Yeah, it may be petty to LEOs when I get screwed for $2k or so, but it is NOT petty to me.

Now if I had shown up on the doorstep of any of those above mentioned people with a baseball bat in my hand and they called the police, just who do you think would be in more trouble, them or me?

So yeah, no offense to anyone, but I have to call things as I see them.

 

[RIKA]

Terry, wouldn't "3 strikes and you're out" apply to GB's relative what with the drugs and bank robbery?

RIKA

 

[John in AR]

Do you have five acres and a shovel...?

(Believe I'm joking if you want.)

 

[84 C4]

Re: To Rich Z

I may be belaboring this point, but my blood pressure does rise a bit when it's implied that we in law enforecment don't do our jobs.

It's safe to say, I never met a bad cop.:beer:

( county is better than local)

Does mean we're screwed if we live in Jacksonville/Duval County Florida?..Where the county and city have been merged into one disfunctional mess?

 

[Terry G]

Terry, wouldn't "3 strikes and you're out" apply to GB's relative what with the drugs and bank robbery?

RIKA

Actually, it's three Felonies. A lot of drug cases, even though jail time is ordered, are plea bargained down to misdemeanors. THe drug charges may be a local or State issue; the bank robbery is Federal all the way. I would guess that he would be on some form of supervision for at least ten years.

 

[andy]

NO federal supervised

release terms hold anybody more than 3 years. The State stuff is rarely more than 1 year. The states can't afford such.

 

[Terry G]

Re: NO federal supervised

release terms hold anybody more than 3 years. The State stuff is rarely more than 1 year. The states can't afford such.

I beg to differ. Federal Supervision is often ten years, depending on the nature of the offense, or if you are a repeat offender.

 

[GBullet]

Update:

Other relatives apparently decided to call about this troublemaker. His mother came to his rescue, claiming that it was a misunderstanding that he could enter the house. She said that she told him he had permission to stay there for a few days. Sooner or later he will get caught again and several of us in the family would like that to be sooner.

 

[GBullet]

Terry, thanks again for your advice.

 

[Teufelhund]

We often say

A neigbor is someone that keeps his mouth shut when he see's [email protected] going down, a good neigbor is the one that stops his truck and gets his shovel.

Do you have five acres and a shovel...?

(Believe I'm joking if you want.)

I have had many "rough" characters working for me over the years, I own a oil/gas sevice company and a residencial contruction company. I have hired all types, the man that has gotten himself crossed up with the law and "decent" men with families. I've had then all steal from me at some point. It's very hard to tell who is the "honest" man when things get tight, you usually never know till they are tested.

For a few years I had a hand working for me that had killed a couple indians in a revenge killing and had been involved is other such things. He was loyal to the core, just a little rough around the edges

He was good at resolving conflict in certain conditions, the most notable time was when my wife was at the Chevy dealer trying to get her Suburban fixed under warranty. She called me and said they wanted a couple thousand dollars more, I was "sitting" a drill rig about ready to "top" gas 200 miles away and couldn't leave. The hand, 6' 4", thin as a rail, with a nice collection of scars and tattos stopped by the dealer and "chatted" a bit with the service manager and got things worked out.

I trusted him with thousands of dollars of equipment, company credit cards ect. and in many years he never let me down.

One thing, I've found true over the years though, druggies can never be trusted, drugs ruin a mans honor and soul.

Teuf,

 

[andy]

I've had a LOT of Fed cases myself, read scores more guy's paperwork, and not once have I seen any supervised release terms for over 3 years. The 10 year bs is strictly in your mind.

 

[Terry G]

I've had a LOT of Fed cases myself, read scores more guy's paperwork, and not once have I seen any supervised release terms for over 3 years. The 10 year bs is strictly in your mind.

I'm not going to argue with you, look at the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. 120 months IS TEN years of Supervision.

 

[Terry G]

I'm not trying to be a know it all, here, but I don't like criminals and convicts. Any time I can help, I'll be more than glad to.