Highway Patrol

 

Is this photo a still taken from a Blues Brothers movie?  I dunno.  It appears to be a 1967 Chevrolet Impala Police Cruiser.

In the mid-1960s the Chicago Police Department favored the use of Impalas of this era for their size - sufficient room for two officers and their equipment, winter driving capability, ability to engage in high speed expressway pursuits and their over-all reliability.

This vehicle was produced by GM's Chevrolet motor division as a spec-built fleet vehicle for taxi and police department use.  Consequently, it was assembled with 'beefier' components including: a heavy-duty rear axle including a limited slip differential, heavy duty suspension, springs and shocks, larger sway bars, a reinforced frame, power steering and plain steel wheels with bias-ply tires including 'dog-dish' hub caps.  Later models included experimental front disc brakes but virtually all vehicles produced included heavy duty drum brakes all-around.

 

Tennessee State Trooper 1966 Biscayne model 

I'm familiar with this vehicle line as our household ride in the 1960s included a 1965 Chevy Belair later replaced by a 1967 Chevy Impala SS (Super Sport).  Both of those vehicles were equipped with a 283 (4.6L) V8 and the police version was powered by a 327 (5.4L) V8 rated at 275 hp.  Pursuit-model law enforcement models were generally equipped with a 396 (6.5L) V8 rated at 325 hp.

Hitched to the rear-wheel drive was a 2-speed 'Slush Box' Powerglide automatic transmission - same as my 1968 Pontiac Le Mans convertible.  Later years witnessed the introduction of a 3-speed Turbo-Hydromatic transmission.  

Police units came factory-equipped with a single 'Gumball' red rotating beacon, dash-mounted or column siren control, a Motorola radio console, drive side spotlight and sometimes a steel [partition between the front and real seats. 

From a post just about a couple of years ago is a Wisconsin State Patrol 1967 Chevrolet Biscayne.

This is not a police model but it is a most excellent surviving restoration of a 1967 Impala Super Sport (fully loaded).

Vroom!

If Only The Dead Could Talk

Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, was killed last year by an ICE agent, with the Department of Homeland Security accusing him of having struck an ICE agent with their vehicle. However, DHS’ account of the incident was fiercely disputed by Martinez’ childhood friend, Joshua Orta, who was present during the encounter and claimed neither had offered any resistance to ICE officers’ demands.

On Saturday, Orta died in an unrelated car crash while driving in San Antonio, Texas, with his stepfather confirming his death to the New York Times on Monday.

 

Incredible Hockey Shot

Now that the 2026 Milano Cortino Winter Olympic Games are behind us​, this retired curler had to share this classic.

Further evidence of how much mobile technology, and videography, have advanced  since this Samsung Mobile Explorer advertisement from the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games sixteen years ago.

Adding an entirely new emphasis on the slap shot; hockey meets curling...

If Only The Dead Could Talk

Originally reported on Wednesday by Newsweek we learned of another Immigration and Customs Enforcement connection to the shooting death of an American citizen in March of 2025.  A shooting death kept from public scrutiny until only last week.

Coincidentally, and leading up to this, a review of internal emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) indicate that senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were informed of a significant rise in reported use-of-force incidents compared to the previous year.  In this case incidents in early March alone had quadrupled year-over year.  

Now the public learns of 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez shot last March in South Padre Island.  ICE's involvement in the shooting was not disclosed to the public until this last week.  

According to ICE documents, the episode, which occurred around 12:40 AM on March 15, 2025, Mr. Martinez failed to follow commands to exit his vehicle. Martinez initially did not follow officers' instructions but eventually slowed to a stop after receiving verbal commands.  Agents surrounded the vehicle and told him to get out of the car before he accelerated and hit a federal agent who reportedly landed on the hood of the vehicle.  Another agent then fired multiple times through the driver's side window.  

The Department of Homeland Security described the shooting as an act of self-defense, saying the agent had "fired defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents and the general public" after the driver "ran over" a Homeland Security Investigation special agent.

That agent was treated and released for a minor knee injury.  Martinez is dead.

According to Homeland Security Department policy an immigration agent is supposed to use deadly force only if the officer has reasonable belief that the subject poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.  Furthermore, the policy specifically states that officers should avoid placing themselves in positions in which they have no other option but to use deadly force.  

In ICE's own reporting this appears another instance of ICE agents not complying with department policy concerning placement of personnel in connection to apprehended vehicles.  Haven't we seen this before?

ICE has not reported the existence of dash cam or body cam video of the incident and no known public video has come forward.  Martinez had been celebrating his birthday with a friend known since elementary school.  He was employed at an Amazon warehouse in San Antonio and had no known criminal or arrest record at the time of this post.

Some will take exception to my view on this subject but I happen to believe federal agents concealing their faces behind a mask and not wearing identification is a bad look.  They need to be up-front like law enforcement we're all accustomed-to.  A sinister look invites nothing but trouble.  Sure, a few of you will tell me about doxing of federal agents.  But you know what?  If rampant doxing was as big as you might imagine, then all law enforcement everywhere would be masked all the time.  

It's not.  

Where I live law enforcement officers wear a badge with a number, including a name tag and rank, they don't hide behind a mask and produce a business card before we part company.  They're professionals and go about their job like professionals.  They're so good at their job they never, never, ever stand in front of a stopped vehicle.  Even I know not to do this.  Your local LEOs are likely identical to mine.  But I digress and apologize for the cheap shot.

Do you know what is an even bigger bad look than masked federal agents?  

Another of our countrymen gunned-down by a federal agent.  

Naturally, there's that small handful of my acquaintances who will bask in their ghoulish reflected glory over this and crow on social media about how Martinez had it coming and it was all his fault.  Nevertheless, I figure most people reading this are standard-issue citizens who understand that federal agents shooting Americans to death is just, plain, smarmy.  It looks terrible and doesn't poll well.  

Moreover, the image of the best professional ICE agents suffer because of this nonsense.  From the top down the reputation and credibility of the entire department suffers.  If, as a consequence, agency leadership comes-across as evasive or furtive the public will take notice and the people will mutter about it.  None of this is rocket science.  Hearts and minds; it is all about winning in the court of public opinion. Appearance counts for a lot.  

So, what do we know for sure? 

Martinez is dead and cannot speak for himself.  This is conspiracy fodder.

No dash cams, no body cams, no identification or accountability for the shooter.  Unheard-of in the world of professional law enforcement this is sloppy meatball policing for sure.  If this is a deliberate policy to never leave a digital trail; that is a really bad look.  (See about conspiracy above)   

How about the boss?  Yup, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem hiding this from the public as long as she has.  Or is this just another oversize example of garden-variety incompetence?  Both looks are really bad; the former is much worse than the latter.  

Hidden from the public for a year.  Sloppy or deliberate?  Reader's Choice - you pick.  

What are they hiding from us anyway?

Roto-Rooter

Again, I have had the unwelcome but necessary opportunity to drink of the substance that facilitates the Big Porcelain Fountain Flush.  

A cocktail taken straight-up with a chaser of several bottles of Gatorade.

You know; The Purge.

If you know; you know.

Give thanks I am not sharing the digital imagery from my Roto-Rooter experience.

See ya in five years! 

 

Fools and Lapdogs

The U.S. merchandise trade deficit hit a record $1.2 trillion last year, despite President Donald Trump’s promise to eliminate it by imposing the highest tariffs in eight decades on foreign-made products.

Thursday’s Commerce Department report represents the first full-year assessment of the president’s ambitious reordering of global trade. The persistence of the deficit in the face of steep new taxes on imports from China, the European Union and scores of other nations reflects the limits of Trump’s blunt policy tool.

As expected, the Supreme Court today nullified Donald Trump's signature economic policy this morning in a ruling that invalidated the president's arbitrary and capricious imposition of trillions of dollars of import taxes on our trading partners around the world.  

Naturally, the President's response was to be presidential and call the justices fools and lapdogs for ruling against him on tariffs.    

 

Back in August the president threatened the court stating that this ruling would: Literally destroy the United States of America. 

Well, it's happened and in the long term we're all likely to be better-off for the ruling.  Tariffs, on their own, are not likely to raise-up or destroy the country inasmuch as imported goods account for only about ten percent of our total economy.  Because we are largely a service economy tariffs don't have much direct impact on things like education and healthcare.  Manufacturing constitutes less than ten percent of the US economy.

Nevertheless, the imposition of import taxes at the sky-high levels the administration imposed are a tax on all consumers, business and manufacturers shrinking the country's Gross Domestic Product by an estimated .3 percent per year. If you put a number on that it amounts to roughly $90 billion a year in losses. That isn't insignificant but nowhere close enough to destroy America.  It just raises everyone's cost of living, jeopardizes farmers, ranchers, small business and contributes to inflation.

So where is this all going to lead us?  Too early to tell but I suppose there are companies for whom imports are a necessary part of doing business; and they're going to want a tax refund. 

Meanwhile, I guess none of us are getting the tariff dividend we were promised and the income tax isn't going to be replaced by tariff revenue.  Of course the DOGE dividend never showed-up in my checking account either.  

Money talks, baloney walks.....

Friday Music

This is a gospel-influenced track composed by Curtis Mayfield and released by the Impressions as a the title track from their People Get Ready album.  Released as a single it became the group's best-known hit reaching number three on the Billboard R&B chart and Number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100.  

In 1965, the date of the song's release, Mayfield was beginning to manifest a growing sense of social and political awareness in his writing.  Martin Luther King shared that this song was the 'unofficial' anthem of the Civil Rights movement.

Rolling Stone magazine names it the 24th greatest song of all time and also placed itt at number 20 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.  It's also included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.  Whew!

It has been covered by everyone from Jeff Beck, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bob Marley, Al Greene, Aretha Franklin, The Chambers Brothers, Eva Cassidy, Everly Brothers, Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, the Staple Singers and way too many more to count.  Whew!!

In my view Curtis Mayfield is one of the greatest soul singer/composers of all time.

To provide for contrast and for a sense of the timelessness of this song and how it has  transcended boundaries over multiple generations, social, political and religious movements I am posting a 1987 soulful Live In Montreaux performance by Mayfield followed by a contemporary white evangelical cover by Lindy Cofer and Matt Redman.

Good stuff. 

People Get Ready...