Ten Pound Tabby Cat Trees A Young Bear Who Doesn't Know He's A Bear

Citizens are like the young, inexperienced bear who doesn't yet know his own power.

Politicians are like the over confidant tabby cat who chased the callow young bear up a tree and then, very impressed with himself, stood at the bottom of the tree daring the bear to come down.

A few years ago a New Jersey man saw his orange tabby cat chase a young bear up a tree.  

That was a few years ago. By now, I'm sure that bear has figured out he's the biggest, baddest thing in the forest and that he need never again be intimidated by a cocky ten pound tabby cat.

I'm waiting for citizens to figure out that we are the bear and politicians are the house cats. 

I love cats. I have 3 rescue cats. But I don't want to be a prissy, over-confidant cat. I want to be the bear. I am the bear.

Be the bear. Vote. Let elected officials know you are watching them. Let them know you are telling your friends when elected officials screw up. Write letters, make phone calls, send emails to elected officials and give them feedback on what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong. Stop seeing "Republican" and "Democrat". Start seeing only performance and effectiveness in office. Be the bear. 

If you live in St Albans Ward 4 and you are afraid the two cats known as the Prosecutor and 13th circuit judge will, once again, let your local felony drug dealer off without a trial, tell the Prosecutor's office that you are the bear and they are the cats and that you have come down out of the tree and you're the biggest, baddest thing in the forest. 

Write Prosecutor Mark Plants at 301 Virginia Street East, Charleston, WV 25301 or email him at MPlants@KanawhaProsecutor.com. Tell him to INDICT Timothy Dwayne Basham , #13B528.

--West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker b

If you live in the city limits of St. Albans and you support the goals and methods of neighborhood watch as a means of improving the city of St Albans, join "Public Group For St. Albans Neighborhood Watch" on Facebook at ::https://www.facebook.com/groups/PublicGroupForSt.AlbansNeighborhoodWatch/.

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Higginbotham At Large only publishes the comments of clearly identified submitters. I am not interested in the opinions of cowards who hide behind CB handles and I will not publish them.  By "clearly identified" I mean something like this: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com. No Ring of Gyges for you.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, 

West Virginia's Judicial Opacity Is The Gazette's Paper-Selling Opportunity

I'm hoping Charleston Gazette Executive Editor, Rob Byers, will use the departure of @TravisCrime as an opportunity to redefine "crime reporter" so I'm, once again, offering Mr. Byers some unsolicited reader feedback.

Mr. Byers, West Virginia's judicial opacity provides the Charleston Gazette an opportunity to add value to a Gazette subscription by reporting what TV won't (unless there's surveillance video of an exploding South Hills mailbox involved.) In states with more judicial transparency citizens can follow up on the neighborhood drug felon whose arraignment they just saw on the evening news and they can find out if the felon made bail, which prosecutor and which judge caught the case and when the felon has to appear in court. In West Virginia, by contrast, citizens who wish to make sure their local prosecutors and judges are doing their jobs have to go to the courthouse and use their computer to get that information. 

And I wonder if the Gazette knows that when a prosecutor's case against a drug felon is dismissed because he failed to provide necessary discovery, neither the judge nor the prosecutor notify the police that the case they worked so hard to build has been tossed. My own St. Albans Police Department found out that a felony drug case against Timothy Basham had been dismissed after I made a phone call to the 13th circuit court administrator, learned of the dismissal and then informed Chief Mike Matthews. 

West Virginia's judicial opacity is the Gazette's opportunity to provide readers with information they won't get from TV news. Put your next crime reporter on the prosecutorial and judicial watch beat. That information alone will be worth the price of a Gazette subscription.
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If you live in the city limits of St. Albans and you support the goals and methods of neighborhood watch as a means of improving the city of St Albans, join "Public Group For St. Albans Neighborhood Watch" on Facebook at ::https://www.facebook.com/groups/PublicGroupForSt.AlbansNeighborhoodWatch/.

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Higginbotham At Large only publishes the comments of clearly identified submitters. No pseudonymous or anonymous comments will be published. By "clearly identified" I mean something like this: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com. No Ring of Gyges for you.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, 

Today's Phone Call From Mark Plants

To his credit, Kanawha County Prosecutor, Mark Plants, has been very accessible and. I believe, fairly contrite - at least with me - since his office botched a Timothy Basham drug felony case. I say "a" Timothy Basham case because Basham still has another drug felony charge and another non-drug charge that Plants' office hasn't managed to screw up as far as I know. Plants called me today to say that he was putting one of his staff in charge of monitoring the case flow (my paraphrase) to keep him updated on case progress and to make sure his assistant prosecutors don't screw up future cases. 

After I talked to Plants I was interviewed by WOWK's Ariel Rothfield who asked me what this case meant to my neighborhood watch efforts. I don't know if this soundbite will get on the air but I told her this botched case means citizens need to start doing their own case tracking to make sure the thug who invaded their home or the drug dealer across the street doesn't fall through the cracks as Basham's case did. Write letters to the judge and to to Prosecutor Plants' office. Make sure they know that neighborhood watch voters are not just watching the bad guys, we're now watching the good guys, too, because we may wish to vote for prosecutors and judges who will put drug dealers out of business.


If you live in the city limits of St. Albans and you support the goals and methods of neighborhood watch as a means of improving the city of St Albans, join "Public Group For St. Albans Neighborhood Watch" on Facebook at ::https://www.facebook.com/groups/PublicGroupForSt.AlbansNeighborhoodWatch/.

Higginbotham At Large only publishes the comments of clearly identified submitters. No pseudonymous or anonymous comments will be published. By "clearly identified" I mean something like this: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com. No Ring of Gyges for you.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, 

Why Neighborhood Watch Groups Must Now Watch The Good Guys As Well As The Bad Guys

If you read yesterday's post (see my archive) you know that Mark Plants' office botched a drug felony case for lack of a simple lab report and a management control that might have detected the absence of the needed lab report. 

Here's what I told my neighborhood watch group Tuesday night: I told them that our job is harder and more complex that I imagined because it's no longer enough to watch our neighbors' backs and dial 911 when we see bad guys, we now have to watch the "good guys", too, because the good guys don't have systems in place to make sure the drug dealers don't squirm off the hook when the police catch them.

I told my neighborhood watch group that we must start tracking cases by calling the 13th circuit court and asking status of cases. I told my group we must write letters to prosecutors and judges to remind them of the drug felons who are about to appear and how those drug felons are causing most of the crime in our neighborhoods and that we want them put out of business.

I told them that if the prisons are full judges should sentence drug felons either to 16 - hour days of useful community service or 16 hour days handcuffed to a chair in the police department. Why 16 hours? Just enough free time for sleep, not enough time to meet with their drug suppliers and customers.

If you live in the city limits of St. Albans and you support the goals and methods of neighborhood watch as a means of improving the city of St Albans, join "Public Group For St. Albans Neighborhood Watch" on Facebook at ::https://www.facebook.com/groups/PublicGroupForSt.AlbansNeighborhoodWatch/.

Higginbotham At Large only publishes the comments of clearly identified submitters. No pseudonymous or anonymous comments will be published. By "clearly identified" I mean something like this: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com. No Ring of Gyges for you.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, 

The Botched Timothy Basham Case: What I Learned About How Kanawha Prosecutor Plants Run His Office (And What He Needs To Learn About Management)

In damage control mode, Kanawha County Prosecutor, Mark Plants, called me yesterday to present his side of how his office botched a "slam-dunk" drug felony case brought to him by the SAPD. We eventually spoke on the phone more than once and I am still alarmed and disturbed by what I learned . Here are some facts:

When the aforementioned felony drug case against Timothy Basham was dismissed, the SAPD didn't know about it until I told them. I found out by making a phone call to the 13th circuit administrator's office. When the case against Timothy Basham was dismissed by Judge Carrie Webster, neither Webster nor Prosecutor Plants' office notified the SAPD that all their great police work was in vain for mere want of a lab report that Plants' office failed to obtain. Without that report, Plants literally had no case so Judge Webster dismissed it. 

That case was dismissed in September. In December, Mark Plants spoke to my neighborhood watch group and when we asked him about the case he didn't recognize the name of the defendant but said he would get back to us. Plants never notified our group that the case had been dismissed.

I asked Plants how and why he didn't know that the assistant prosecutor assigned to the Basham case had not obtained a necessary document. I asked him if he has daily staff meetings wherein he asks about each pending case and requires the assigned APs to tell him the progress and disposition of their cases, one by one. Plants told me he has no such daily meetings. 

I advised Prosecutor Plants that holding such regular staff accountability and status report meetings is basic management and I'm shocked that he doesn't perform this simple management function.

I also offer him this: Read up on Deming Management method and read books about systems. Put systems in place to prevent the Basham incident from happening again. 

Let me close by paraphrasing Deming: Outputs are the result of systems. Management is in charge of the system which means when you don't get the right output, it's always management's fault. Always. Yes, an assistant prosecutor may have failed to go to the lab and get a lab result, but you didn't have a system in place to detect that failure. Mark Plants, this is on you. You're management. It's your fault.


If you live in the city limits of St. Albans and you support the goals and methods of neighborhood watch as a means of improving the city of St Albans, join "Public Group For St. Albans Neighborhood Watch" on Facebook at ::https://www.facebook.com/groups/PublicGroupForSt.AlbansNeighborhoodWatch/.

Higginbotham At Large only publishes the comments of clearly identified submitters. No pseudonymous or anonymous comments will be published. By "clearly identified" I mean something like this: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com. No Ring of Gyges for you.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, 

Open Letter to Prosecutor Mark Plants, Assistant Prosecutors Ken Starcher and Ben Freeman and 13th Circuit Judge Carrie Webster

Prosecutor Mark Plants, Assistant Prosecutors Ken Starcher and Ben Freeman and 13th Circuit Judge, Carrie Webster:

I've just learned from the 13th circuit court administrator's office that a drug distribution case against my ward's most notorious drug dealer has been dismissed. 

But cases against him remain so I'm reminding Ken Starcher and Ben Freeman what their boss, embattled Prosecutor Mark Plants, told my neighborhood watch group in December: Plants promised to prosecute drug dealers to the fullest and he told us he would fire assistant prosecutors who don't prosecute them to the fullest. He told us he had already fired assistant prosecutors who wouldn't.

Judge Webster, don't let this guy - you know who I'm talking about - get away. Put him out of the drug selling business. Sentence him to sitting at the SAPD station for 16 hours a day of you have to, but put him out of business.
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Captain James Agee of the St. Albans Police Department will speak and answer your questions at the Tuesday May 6 meeting of the Ward 4 Neighborhood Watch, 6:30PM, Crossing Church, 2031 Harrison Avenue in St. Albans' 4th ward. 


If you live in the city limits of St. Albans and you support the goals and methods of neighborhood watch as a means of improving the city of St Albans, join "Public Group For St. Albans Neighborhood Watch" on Facebook at ::https://www.facebook.com/groups/PublicGroupForSt.AlbansNeighborhoodWatch/.

Higginbotham At Large only publishes the comments of clearly identified submitters. No pseudonymous or anonymous comments will be published. By "clearly identified" I mean something like this: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com. No Ring of Gyges for you.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, 

Do Your Neighbors Have Your Back? Take This Simple Test To find Out

If your neighbor sees a stranger snooping in your back yard, trying to get into your house or stealing your property would that neighbor:

1. Do nothing?
2. Post the incident on Facebook and hope the cops see it? 
3. Call their city councilperson, their neighborhood watch coordinator or their block captain?
4. Scare the intruder off?
5. Dial 911?

If you answered 1,2, 3 or 4 your neighbor does not have your back. The correct action is number 5, dial 911. Responses 1-4 do not make you safer. 
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Captain James Agee of the St. Albans Police Department will speak and answer your questions at the Tuesday May 6 meeting of the Ward 4 Neighborhood Watch, 6:30PM, Crossing Church, 2031 Harrison Avenue in St. Albans' 4th ward. 


If you live in the city limits of St. Albans and you support the goals and methods of neighborhood watch as a means of improving the city of St Albans, join "Public Group For St. Albans Neighborhood Watch" on Facebook at ::https://www.facebook.com/groups/PublicGroupForSt.AlbansNeighborhoodWatch/.

Higginbotham At Large only publishes the comments of clearly identified submitters. No pseudonymous or anonymous comments will be published. By "clearly identified" I mean something like this: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com. No Ring of Gyges for you.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive,