The Off Topic Topic

[Valmy]

Nords suck.  Swadia 4eva!

The first mission in every game is to destroy Swadia. After that I decide who I am going to back, usually Nords or Rhodoks.

Makes sense.  You shouldn't back a team as wimpy as the Rhodoks or the Nords without first defeating the most fearsome and mighty faction.

[Maximus]

  The Swadians are more annoyance than threat. They usually get dismembered pretty quickly, losing all their cities to the other factions even without my involvement, but then they hang on forever in their castles, just raiding farmers and villages. I really hate raiders.

[Valmy]

The Swadians are more annoyance than threat. They usually get dismembered pretty quickly, losing all their cities to the other factions even without my involvement, but then they hang on forever in their castles, just raiding farmers and villages. I really hate raiders.

Lies!  Swadia rules supreme!  Ok this might be related to their central starting position.

[garbon]

Barack Obama(sp?) on Between Two Ferns. Quite funny.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/18e820ec3f/between-two-ferns-with-zach-galifianakis-president-barack-obama

What?

[CountDeMoney]

A prosecutor in New Jersey has started charging heroin dealers with homicide under strict liability.

In the same CNN story a talking head claimed overdose of opium (opiates??) is the 3rd leading cause of death in Massachussetts.

It's not helping that OD deaths from heroin in some cities have skyrocketed in recent months due to the increased prevalence of fentanyl mixed in with it. 

Lethal new mix of heroin has killed EIGHTY users across the East Coast this year
By Associated Press Reporter
PUBLISHED: 21:42 EST, 16 February 2014

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2560998/More-80-dead-U-S-lethal-mix-heroin-hits-streets.html

[Capetan Mihali]

A prosecutor in New Jersey has started charging heroin dealers with homicide under strict liability.

This already happens across the U.S., if they can actually show that the person who OD'd was actually supplied by the defendant. 

In N.C. it was just 2nd degree murder, IIRC.  While I was there, an 18 y.o. high schooler with a pill habit got a life sentence for selling a Suboxone to one of his younger buddies who promptly died.  (It was undisputed from text messages that the younger one repeatedly badgered and begged him for it after the older one had refused, and that he'd warned him to break it into 4 pieces and only take one quarter.)

In Vt. there is a crime of "sale of a regulated drug resulting in death" which has a 2 year minimum, 20 year maximum sentence (though it's not really a mandatory minimum -- it can be suspended or split to serve).  Same with furnishing alcohol to a minor who dies (I think that's a 5 year max felony though).

I'd assume that the hubbub is about this prosecutor charging *all* heroin dealers with homicide, whether they're linked to an OD or not?

[Admiral Yi]

Nope.  Only those linked to an OD.

[Capetan Mihali]

It's not helping that OD deaths from heroin in some cities have skyrocketed in recent months due to the increased prevalence of fentanyl mixed in with it. 

Lethal new mix of heroin has killed EIGHTY users across the East Coast this year
By Associated Press Reporter
PUBLISHED: 21:42 EST, 16 February 2014

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2560998/More-80-dead-U-S-lethal-mix-heroin-hits-streets.html

I remember when the same thing hit Philly/Trenton/Camden (probably B'more too) back in the summer of 2006.

They had warning flyers up all over the drug areas, but it didn't quite work as planned -- everyone started running around looking for that fire dope that had people falling out all over the place, and then all the dealers started stamping their bags with "Lethal Injection," "Red Death," etc. to take advantage of the hype.

These fentanyl cuts come in cycles.  Actually the first one I'm aware of was back in NYC in '91, when it was in "Tango and Cash" ( ) stamp bags.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/04/nyregion/toxic-heroin-has-killed-12-officials-say.html

[Capetan Mihali]

Nope.  Only those linked to an OD.

Hmm.  That's pretty normal.  I'd bet in most states they have the ability to charge it as murder, and in the ones that don't there's a separate homicide crime for it (like Vt.'s above).

Except for those who have the misfortune of getting caught up in it, very few people have any idea how completely fucked up the American criminal justice system is.

[CountDeMoney]

CM, if I ever get back into the bail bonds business, I want you to be my legal counsel of choice.

Nigga knows his narcs.

[Admiral Yi]

Hmm.  That's pretty normal.  I'd bet in most states they have the ability to charge it as murder, and in the ones that don't there's a separate homicide crime for it (like Vt.'s above).

Except for those who have the misfortune of getting caught up in it, very few people have any idea how completely fucked up the American criminal justice system is.

Kay.

It was news to me.

[crazy canuck]

I remember when the same thing hit Philly/Trenton/Camden (probably B'more too) back in the summer of 2006.

They had warning flyers up all over the drug areas, but it didn't quite work as planned -- everyone started running around looking for that fire dope that had people falling out all over the place, and then all the dealers started stamping their bags with "Lethal Injection," "Red Death," etc. to take advantage of the hype.

These fentanyl cuts come in cycles.  Actually the first one I'm aware of was back in NYC in '91, when it was in "Tango and Cash" ( ) stamp bags.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/04/nyregion/toxic-heroin-has-killed-12-officials-say.html

I wonder if that reaction to a police warning is a function of not trusting the police to be entirely truthful.  I am pretty sure the stats around here are that when police put out a warning about a deadly dose hitting the streets users take it seriously because they know the police are not just trying to scare them away from taking drugs in general but that there is a genuine risk to life.

[Capetan Mihali]

CM, if I ever get back into the bail bonds business, I want you to be my legal counsel of choice.

Nigga knows his narcs.

Let's do it, hoss.  I miss the urban life.

What I really want is for you to become an investigator for a public defender office.  It's mostly ex-cops and I think you could be a little smarter than the average bear; like, for instance, not immediately going all Reid Technique on someone you're trying to talk to as a defense witness.

[Capetan Mihali]

Hmm.  That's pretty normal.  I'd bet in most states they have the ability to charge it as murder, and in the ones that don't there's a separate homicide crime for it (like Vt.'s above).

Except for those who have the misfortune of getting caught up in it, very few people have any idea how completely fucked up the American criminal justice system is.

Kay.

It was news to me.

No, I'm not trying to express disdain for general ignorance or anything, I'm happy it was news to you and hope it's news to a lot of people, since it's pretty outrageous.  I'm just making the point that it's quite widespread, which should make it more outrageous rather than less. 

The under-reporting of actual criminal procedure/sentencing practice (as opposed to flash high-drama courtroom antics) has been endemic, but that's starting to change.

[CountDeMoney]

What I really want is for you to become an investigator for a public defender office.  It's mostly ex-cops and I think you could be a little smarter than the average bear; like, for instance, not immediately going all Reid Technique on someone you're trying to talk to as a defense witness.

I've looked into that route a few times, but those gigs are about as buried in the Good Ol' Boy system as it can get.  Yeah, even the PD's office.  I don't think I've ever seen anybody that was lower than a lieutenant in those slots.  I, however, can't be trusted: I left The Brotherhood(tm) and went bail.  Everybody knows you never go full bail.

I did like one job app I saw up by fhdz's way in Portland last year, as an independent investigator for some city office on police accountability.  Since I've played both sides of the fence, I'd have no dog in that kind of fight.  Both sides are full of shit as far as I'm concerned.