Read Boulder creates working group to revamp public engagement process in the Daily Camera. I glanced at the headline of this story and quickly decided NOT to waste my time going any deeper into it, but I posted the link for your convenience.
Here’s what it amounts to, as far as I’m concerned:
— MRW
Read the guest opinion in the Daily Camera here. Copied below in its entirety:
As a resident of the Whittier neighborhood, I share my neighbors’ concerns that placing a high-density housing development in our historic residential neighborhood will forever change its character. But that’s not the main reason that I am opposed to transitional housing project proposed for 1440 Pine Street. It is the wrong location for the at-risk population it is intended to serve. The plan is to build 40 apartments in downtown Boulder for young adults who have aged out of the foster care system. This means that they have grown up, going from one residential placement to another. Typically, rejected, neglected, or abused as children, these emotionally scarred victims of circumstance desperately need guidance and support in order to become productive members of society versus ending up in jail, or worse.
Having had the privilege of working for Attention Homes, the proposed service provider for this facility, as well as serving on their board of directors, I had the opportunity to work with these children over many years, often feeling emotionally overwhelmed by their chilling histories, crying in my car on my way home from work. This is a population close to my heart. That’s why I feel compelled to speak out. By locating this facility so close to downtown Boulder, we will be setting up a large percentage of these residents to fail. I know this because when Attention Homes had a facility down the block from the proposed site, we would regularly “lose children to Pearl Street,” seeing them intoxicated and begging for money in the company of older drifters days later.
The flawed logic being espoused by the developers is that this is a great location because it’s near public transportation and job opportunities, when in fact any location on the bus route would accomplish the same goal without all of the unhealthy temptations. Particularly because there will be no ongoing supervision or treatment requirements for residents, according to Attention Homes.
Moreover, to see such a storied nonprofit veer from its mission in order to survive financially is heartbreaking. I also had the privilege of working with juvenile court judge Horace Holmes, who brought kids from his courtroom to his own home for respite, which provided the genesis of the Attention Homes model. Namely, taking kids out of institutions and placing them in a small homelike setting to recreate a sense of warmth and family. This is the first time in their 50-year history that they are breaking from that tradition. And due to reduced funding to provide alternate housing for children in need, to see them abandoning that effort in favor of now working with adults because of better funding opportunities, has us as a community abandoning these children all over again.
The ugly truth is that the location of this proposed facility is driven by financial gain for all three partners; The church will get their property developed at no cost to them, Attention Homes will have the funds necessary to keep operating, and the for-profit developer will, well, make their profit. Just imagine what they can do with 40 apartments in downtown Boulder, once their 15-year agreement with Attention Homes expires.
Jan Hittelman is a licensed psychologist in Boulder.
Facility at 3080 N. Broadway; new addition completed in 2013
Changing the mission of Attention Homes from its original focus on vulnerable kids ages 12-17 to young adults ages 18-24 is indeed something “driven by financial gain” as the commentary above states. I find it unconscionable, as well as unneeded, because a ton of other resources are available for the 18-24 crowd . . . Also ironic, because the young adults are often preying on the kids.
STOP THIS INSANITY!
— MRW
DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY, STOP ENABLING BAD BEHAVIOR!
Max R. Weller
Read the report in the Denver Post: Denver going after “scourge of hoodlums” on 16th Street Mall. Excerpt follows:
Citing a “scourge of hoodlums” on Denver’s 16th Street Mall, city officials on Monday announced new plans to ramp up security, including stopping people from leaning on walls and calling animal control when people are loitering with dogs.
The plan also includes the addition of more uniformed officers on the mall, from the Denver Police Department and from private security, which will be hired by the Denver Downtown Partnership.
Mayor Michael Hancock said the crackdown is coming because of bad behavior from “urban travelers,” whom he described as a scourge of hoodlums who are pushing the boundaries of the law. Others describe the urban travelers as primarily young people who travel between cities seeking a carefree lifestyle with no desire to hold jobs, mortgages or bank accounts.
“I know people will try to twist who and what we are talking about here today,” Hancock said during a news conference at the Downtown Denver Partnership’s office. “We are not talking about Denver’s homeless. We’re not talking about those on the corner asking for money.”
The travelers often arrive in Denver around April 20, in time for the annual marijuana celebration, and they stick around for the warmer months before moving down the road. Since 2014, there has been an increase in their numbers, said Denver police Cmdr. Tony Lopez, whose district includes downtown.
“They are intimidating those who want to enjoy the mall,” Hancock said.
White described the travelers as “aggressive and offensive” and said, “they’ve been disrespectful to even our police officers in uniforms to be honest with you. We’re at the point where enough is enough. We’re not going to tolerate it for one more second.”
See Violent confrontation on 16th Street Mall caught on video from Fox31 in Denver.
This is the same situation Boulder has been struggling with for years, with transient predators committing violent crimes such as rapes and stabbings; other homeless people they perceive as weaker are frequently their victims. Most of the troublemakers in Denver also travel here to our fair city, filling all available emergency shelter space in wintertime and consuming other resources. Unfortunately, Boulder’s homeless shelter / services industry refuses to require valid photo ID with a Boulder County address and instead serves anybody who can stagger through the door, including sex offenders from other states. MORE HOMELESS PEOPLE = MORE MONEY.
Enabler-in-chief of the worst-behaved transients, heading an organization which spends millions of dollars annually at the same time the number of homeless in Boulder is increasing. And Bridge House has plenty of company:
“Sexually Violent Predator” Kerry Whitfield is from Denver.
I doubt any serious crackdown will ever occur in Boulder until one of the elites falls victim. Then, the do-gooders just might wake up to reality!
Francisco “Pancho” Villa
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Benito Mussolini
Genghis Khan
Just as bad as Trump, but NOT worse
So, what the are the American people to do?
For serious voters
— MRW
From four years ago, but could have been written this morning:
By Max R. Weller
Sooner or later . . .
Consider the following:
1) Dog ownership; here in Boulder it’s an affectation for most, who really don’t have any clue how to care for Man’s Best Friend. Proper control over their pet in public is, of course, out of the question. Even homeless people have gotten into the act, with their numerous phony service dogs, which can always be identified as such when they board an RTD bus and begin sniffing everybody’s crotch. I owned a Springer Spaniel from the time I was about 8 years old until after I graduated from high school in 1974, and it made for great companionship — of a kind I find lacking in yuppies showing off their canines at the Farmers’ Market and elsewhere. A couple of years ago, there was a brouhaha here when some woman reported seeing her precious little Jack Russell Terrier (a…
View original post 570 more words
ORLANDO SHOOTER: Acted like a TERRORIST but was a HOMOPHOBE inspired by ISIS
— MRW
— MRW
Read the report in the Daily Camera: JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect Gary Oliva charged in Boulder child porn case. Copied below in its entirety:
As more than half a dozen national television productions prepare to mark the nearly two decades that have passed since the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, a suspect in the notorious unsolved slaying is in the Boulder County Jail on charges of sexually exploiting a child.
Gary Howard Oliva, 52, was booked without bond into the jail Friday on a case brought by the Boulder Police Department, the same agency that has labored for two decades to bring resolution to the notorious Christmas night 1996 slaying of the 6-year-old child beauty queen.
The affidavit for Oliva’s arrest alleges that in April he uploaded to a Google email address 20 or more images of graphic child pornography. Some images featured a girl estimated to be between 4 and 7 engaged in sexual acts with an adult male whose face is not seen.
The most recent investigation into Oliva was sparked by a “cybertip” from Google to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, then forwarded to Boulder police via the Internet Crimes Against Children task force.
Oliva, who is described in the affidavit as homeless, allegedly accessed child pornography through an IP address traced to the 5300 block of Western Avenue, Boulder. That was “very similar” to an address he used with Boulder police when registering as a sexual offender in October 2015, the affidavit stated.
More recently, Oliva registered again with the city as a sexual offender on June 1, according to the affidavit.
Oliva was formally charged at the Boulder County Jail on Tuesday with two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a child and one count of sexual exploitation of a child, all class 4 felonies. He was ordered held on $10,000 bond, and his preliminary hearing is set for July 11.
A number of people over the years have risen to the surface as suspects in the Ramsey case, only to subsequently be dismissed as non-factors or officially cleared of suspicion. Some have died as time has passed, even as the mystery of what happened in the Ramsey house lives on.
Oliva, a previously convicted sex offender from Oregon who had traveled numerous times to Boulder, was targeted as deserving close scrutiny as a suspect by the late Lou Smit, the highly respected Colorado Springs homicide detective hired to assist the Boulder District Attorney’s Office in the star-crossed murder probe.
Smit became a staunch advocate of the Ramseys’ innocence and a proponent of the theory that an intruder came into their home to kill the girl. Smit continued to work the case on his own after splitting from the District Attorney’s Office, developing numerous alternate suspects in the case. Smit died in 2010, succumbing to cancer four years after Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet’s mother, met the same fate.
Oliva penned ‘Ode to JonBenet’
Oliva was not among the early suspects to surface in JonBenet’s murder, but was highlighted in an in-depth piece broadcast by the CBS program “48 Hours Investigates” in October 2002.
In that piece, Oliva was identified as a then 38-year-old convicted and registered sex offender who was possibly close to the Ramsey home the night JonBenet was killed.
Smit said that Oliva also appeared at a candlelight vigil outside the Ramsey residence one year to the date of the crime — the type of behavior that is sometimes seen in criminal perpetrators.
According to the program, Oliva had been classified as a paranoid schizophrenic who once tried to strangle his mother with a telephone cord and had a conviction for assaulting a 7-year-old girl in Oregon for which he spent time in prison.
Oliva, it was also alleged, frequented addresses in Boulder owned by a local church which fed homeless people. Some of those locations were reportedly not far from the Ramseys’ residence at 755 15th St. Due to the notoriety of the property, the Ramseys’ former address has since been re-tagged as 749 15th St.
The CBS program reported that Oliva called a close friend not long after JonBenet’s death, sobbing and saying he was in Boulder and that he had “done something horrible” and had hurt a child.
Additionally, he was arrested Dec. 12, 2000, on the University of Colorado campus on allegations that included criminal trespass, possession of marijuana and possession of a weapon by a previous offender. That weapon was a stun gun.
Oliva’s possession of a stun gun was potentially significant because some investigators, Smit included, believe such a weapon was used on JonBenet. Other detectives are not convinced on that point.
Oliva was discovered to be carrying a photograph of JonBenet in his personal property. Also, Oliva had in his possession a poem he had written, titled “Ode to JonBenet.”
In the 2002 jailhouse interview that was part of the “48 Hours Investigates” broadcast, Oliva denied hurting or killing JonBenet. He also said he had never used a stun gun on a child.
But Oliva did admit to an obsession with the Ramseys’ youngest child.
“I believe she came to me after she was killed and revealed herself to me,” he said. “I’d like to see a memorial set up for her. I haven’t seen that, anywhere.”
In an interview with the Daily Camera after the 2002 CBS broadcast, then-Boulder Police chief Mark Beckner said Oliva remained a suspect in the Ramsey case.
“We haven’t cleared anyone per se,” Beckner told the Camera. “Before you solve the case, you can’t say anyone has been cleared. I think we’ve been very careful at not doing that at all.”
Tuesday, city spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said, “Over the history of this case, there have been a variety of people we have looked at for potential connections. Mr. Oliva is one of those people.
“The police department is certainly very familiar with him, both because of the investigation that was done in the context of the Ramsey case, and because of his criminal history and the fact that he is a registered sex offender.”
Huntley added, “The police department diligently investigated these current allegations and believes there is probable cause to support the arrest. But we’re currently not comfortable ruling anybody out as a suspect, or ruling anybody in as a suspect in the Ramsey case.”
The department would have no further comment, she said.
‘Dr. Phil’ on the case
Former Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy did rule suspects out, doing so with a July 9, 2008, letter to John Ramsey. Lacy said she was clearing John Ramsey, his deceased wife and their son, Burke, of any suspicion in JonBenet’s murder due to new findings based on analysis of what is termed “touch” DNA.
Lacy’s successor, Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett, has openly questioned Lacy’s decision to issue that exoneration, and is not bound by that or any other decisions his predecessors made in the case.
John and Patsy Ramsey were both indicted for child abuse resulting in death and accessory to first-degree murder by a Boulder County grand jury that reviewed the case for 13 months before being disbanded in October 2000. The indictments were not disclosed to the public at that time and only became public 13 years later after a lawsuit filed against Garnett secured their release.
Those indictments were never prosecuted by former Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter, however. He concluded they were based on evidence insufficient to secure a conviction at trial.
JonBenet, who had enjoyed some success in the world of children’s beauty pageants, was found bludgeoned and asphyxiated with a garrote in her family’s basement the afternoon of Dec. 26, 1996. About eight hours earlier, her mother had frantically called 911. She reported that upon waking that day, she had found a 2 ½ page ransom note on a staircase leading to the family’s kitchen.
The ransom note sought $118,000 in exchange for the child’s safe return. That amount matched John Ramsey’s bonus that year for his work as president and CEO of Boulder’s Access Graphics, then a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin.
There was never an attempt to collect that money. JonBenet’s body was ultimately discovered by her father that day in a little used room in the family’s basement after he and family friend Fleet White were prompted by the lone detective on the scene to conduct another search of the house.
Members of the Ramsey family have always maintained their innocence in the case and asserted that an intruder gained access to their home on Christmas night.
Every aspect of the Ramsey saga is likely to get a thorough examination in the coming months, with television productions geared to the passing of 20 years since JonBenet was killed.
The “Dr. Phil” program is the latest to have contacted potential guest experts with invitations to participate in a Ramsey production.
I’d like to see a follow-up report detailing just which local homeless shelter/services providers have been enabling this pervert, Gary Oliva, and I’d like to read the excuses offered by the clowns who are running the crooked nonprofits . . .
— MRW
Read the report in The Guardian online here. Excerpt follows:
A British man has been detained and charged with attempting to seize a police officer’s gun at a Las Vegas rally in order to commit an act of violence against Donald Trump, authorities said on Monday.
Michael Steven Sandford was arrested at the Saturday rally after grabbing at the holster and handle of a gun at the hip of a Las Vegas police officer who was providing security at the event for the presumptive Republican nominee.
A federal magistrate on Monday found that Sandford was “a danger to the community and a risk of non-appearance” and ordered that he be held without bail, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, who also confirmed that Sandford is a British citizen.
Now, the question I have is this: Will Donald Trump call for a ban on British White Males coming to the United States?
Don’t hold your breath on that one . . .
— MRW
— MRW
homelessphilosopher 