Twas the night before X-Mass and up and down Telegraph, few creatures stirred, except the occasional mouse.

As the last booths of the 29th annual holiday crafts fair folded, shortly after seven, a palpable void replaced last-minute shoppers. Holiday bustle yielded to holiday emptiness.

When the Med closed at 7:20, Teley went dead. Fred’s Market, a cigarette and booze stop remained open South of Dwight. Fred’s closed early, 10:20 p.m.

Not even the You Tube celebrity rats, showed up. A threatening storm that had made good its threats for days may have kept the rats away. Their agents advised them to avoid becoming drowned rats. X-Mass Eve on Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue. Photo by Ted Friedman.

The Trouble With Guns: a Memoir

Posted in The Global Scene Through Berkeleyan Eyes on December 19th, 2012 by admin – Be the first to comment

Dec. 19, 2012
Berkeley, ca

“I read you. [in the Planet} You have good ideas about crime” — Michael K. Meehan, Chief of Police, Berkeley, ca

News from Newtown: Killer’s barber tells all. “I shoulda killed him in my barber’s chair,” CNN.

As periferal as this barber-talk is, it may give us a clue to the killer’s motives. The barber has “known” the killer since he was twelve. The kid never said a word. “She spoke for him,” the barber said.

Either the murdered mother was over-controlling or the kid was a moron (he was decidedly not). If we are right, this is a SCOOP; it’s in the headline.

A neighbor, who was close to the mother, reportedly says she was petitioning the court
for rights of conservatorship, which would have given the mother the ultimate control over her son.

That’s when he started dreaming of killing his mom with her own gun, using the skills she taught him at the shooting range. Sparked to action when he learned of his mom’s bid to take legal control of him, he couldn’t resist making the dream a reality.
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