<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=440 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=headlineblack style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; PADDING-TOP: 5px">One Dead, 14 Injured After Driver Plows Into People in San Francisco</TD></TR><TR><TD class=storytext style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px">Wednesday, August 30, 2006 SAN FRANCISCO — The driver in a bloody hit-and-run spree that killed one man and injured more than a dozen people was mentally unstable and feeling stress from a recent arranged marriage, according to relatives. Omeed A. Popal, 29, was taken into custody Tuesday following a rampage that terrorized pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists. Authorities believe it began more than an hour earlier when his black Honda Pilot fatally struck a man in the East Bay area. "He drove on sidewalks, streets, hit people on crosswalks. It runs the gamut," said police spokesman Sgt. Neville Gittens. Popal was arrested on suspicion of 14 counts of attempted murder and a charge of willful flight after causing serious injury or death, Gittens said. A woman who identified herself as Popal's cousin said he had been having recurring nightmares about someone coming to kill him and had been taking medication. "He thought the devil was coming to him," said Zargona Ramish, who went to the family's home Tuesday afternoon while Popal's relatives were speaking with police. "He is a very good person. He is not like that. What's wrong with him?" <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=430><TBODY><TR><TD class=adHead></TD></TR><TR><TD><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>adsonar_pid=144757;adsonar_ps=399668;adsonar_zw=440;adsonar_zh=120;adsonar_jv='ads.adsonar.com';</SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="/js/adsonar.js"></SCRIPT><FORM id=qas_frm style="DISPLAY: none; MARGIN: 0px" name=qas_frm action="" method=get target=""></FORM></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Another cousin, Hamid Nekrawesh, said a recent arranged marriage in Afghanistan, where his family is from, may have contributed to Popal's problems. "The kid grew up here. He wasn't used to the lifestyle in Afghanistan. I'm sure that put a lot of pressure on him," Nekrawesh said. The spree began around noon in Fremont, in the East Bay, where an unidentified man walking along the side of the road was hit by a black SUV. He was thrown into a field and pronounced dead at the scene, Sgt. Chris Mazzone of the Fremont police said. Witnesses said the driver did not slow down. He then crossed the bay into San Francisco, where he injured at least 14 people in various locations around the city before police boxed him in with their cruisers around 1 p.m. near the Presidio. The victims were taken to three area hospitals. One was in critical condition at San Francisco General, where Mayor Gavin Newsom met with victims and their families. "These are the things, these are so senseless. They're utterly inexplicable. They're impossible to rationalize," Newsom said afterward. "The fact that this individual felt compelled for whatever reason to be determined to do what he did is beyond imagination." Some of the injured were pedestrians and some were motorists. Victims' ages ranged from 18 to 84, authorities said. Neighbors said Popal was living with his parents in Fremont, home to the nation's largest Afghan community. No weapons were found on the suspect, though the car had not been searched, Gittens said. There was no information on whether drugs or alcohol were involved, and it was unclear how fast he was driving, he said. "It was very chaotic," he said. "Fortunately, we were able to take him into custody." </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Oh and I almost forgot to post something from about two weeks ago. Some guy I know later told me the tale. Seems like on a corner in a certain section of this lovely city, some crackhead walked up and gunned down a guy in a wheelchair. How's that for newsworthy and wouldn't you know it, it never hit the headlines.
Another point of view The following is a very interesting perspective about our "Drive by Media" and their "reporting" about Iraq. Victor Davis Hanson is a professor at Fresno State. August 3, 2006 Eye of the Beholder by Victor Davis Hanson The American Enterprise Online War-torn Iraq has about 26 million residents, a peaceful California perhaps now 35 million. The former is a violent and impoverished landscape; the latter said to be paradise on Earth. But how you envision either place to some degree depends on the eye of the beholder and is predicated on what the daily media appear to make of each. As a fifth-generation Californian, I deeply love this state, but still imagine what the reaction would be if the world awoke each morning to be told that once again there were six more murders, 27 rapes, 38 arsons, 180 robberies, and 360 instances of assault in California - yesterday, today, tomorrow, and every day. I wonder if the headlines would scream about "Nearly 200 poor Californians butchered again this month!" How about a monthly media dose of "600 women raped in February alone!" Or try, "Over 600 violent robberies and assaults in March, with no end in sight!" Those do not even make up all of the state's yearly 200,000 violent acts that law enforcement knows about. Iraq's judicial system seems a mess. On the eve of the war, Saddam let out 100,000 inmates from his vast prison archipelago. He himself still sits in the dock months after his trial began. But imagine an Iraq with a penal system like California's with 170,000 criminals - an inmate population larger than those of Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Singapore combined. Just to house such a shadow population costs our state nearly $7 billion a year - or about the same price of keeping 40,000 Army personnel per year in Iraq. What would be the image of our Golden State if we were reminded each morning, "Another $20 million spent today on housing our criminals"? Some of California's most recent prison scandals would be easy to sensationalize: "Guards watch as inmates are raped!" Or "Correction = officer accused of having sex with under-aged detainee!" And apropos of Saddam's sluggish trial, remember that our home state multiple murderer, Tookie Williams, was finally executed in December 2005 - 26 years after he was originally sentenced. Much is made of the inability to patrol Iraq's borders with Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey. But California has only a single border with a foreign nation, not six. Yet over 3 million foreigners who sneaked in illegally now live in our state. Worse, there are about 15,000 convicted alien felons incarcerated in our penal system, costing about $500 million a year. Imagine the potential tabloid headlines: "Illegal aliens in state comprise population larger than San Francisco!" or "Drugs, criminals, and smugglers given free pass into California!" Every year, over 4,000 Californians die in car crashes - nearly twice the number of Americans lost so far in three years of combat operations in Iraq. In some sense, then, our badly maintained roads, and often poorly trained and sometimes intoxicated drivers, are even more lethal than Improvised Explosive Devices. Perhaps tomorrow's headline might scream out at us: "300 Californians to perish this month on state highways! Hundreds more will be maimed and crippled!" In 2001, California had 32 days of power outages, despite paying nearly the highest rates for electricity in the United States. Before complaining about the smoke in Baghdad rising from private generators, think back to the run on generators in California when they were contemplated as a future part of every household's line of defense. We're told that Iraq's finances are a mess. Yet until recently, so were California's. Two years ago, Governor Schwarzenegger inherited a $38 billion annual budget shortfall. That could have made for strong morning newscast teasers: "Another $100 million borrowed today - $3 billion more in red ink to pile up by month's end!" So is California comparable to Iraq? Hardly. Yet it could easily be sketched by a reporter intent on doing so as a bankrupt, crime-ridden den with murderous highways, tens of thousands of inmates, with wide-open borders. I myself recently returned home to California, without incident, from a visit to Iraq's notorious Sunni Triangle. While I was gone, a drug-addicted criminal with a long list of convictions broke into our kitchen at 4 a.m., was surprised by my wife and daughter, and fled with our credit cards, cash, keys, and cell phones. Sometimes I wonder who really was safer that week. ©2006 Victor Davis Hanson Victor Davis Hanson Victor Davis Hanson is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University , a Professor Emeritus at California University , Fresno , and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services. He was a full-time farmer before joining California State University , Fresno , in 1984 to initiate a classics program. In 1991, he was awarded an American Philological Association Excellence in Teaching Award, which is given yearly to the country's top undergraduate teachers of Greek and Latin. Hanson was a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California (1992-93), a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University (1991-92), a recipient of the Eric Breindel Award for opinion journalism (2002), and an Alexander Onassis Fellow (2001) and was named alumnus of the year of the University of California, Santa Cruz (2002). He was also the visiting Shifrin Chair of Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis , Maryland (2002-3).
None taken Ghost. I haven't earned my 'pink' wings yet. And definitely don't plan to. It is just a damn shame that this guy will most likely have the ACLU and a bunch of other idiot liberals crying about his rights while the families of the hurt or dead will be hushed in order to not corrupt the 'Good' image of SF that is carried on the news every night. I have had stories told to me of San Fran through family, people I know and the media of what a lovely place it is. I have even heard the bad from people who have never been here. I have also been given a first hand view of it since coming here and find that although California is just like any other state with it's beautiful places to visit, landmarks and good parks, a lot of it's cities and even more of it's politics are so screwed that there doesn't seem any way of undoing it at all. I now being a resident of CA can say these things as I have first hand knowledge of it being true. While there are good people here and good things, they are being outweighed by the bad. It is a world gone mad and CA is no exception.
Just think if it was a white man that had run over 14 black or Asian people, everybody would be hollering hate crime, and racism. This was a Muslim, I presume, they wouldn't even tell us that, ran over 14 people because they were there.
One hit-and-run victim reportedly paralyzed Sep 1, 2006 SAN FRANCISCO - One victim of Tuesday’s violent hit-and-run rampage may be permanently paralyzed, according to the assistant district attorney who is prosecuting the case. James Thompson was speaking at the scheduled arraignment for Omeed Aziz Popal, who is accused of intentionally running his Honda Pilot sport utility vehicle into 18 pedestrians and one police cruiser Tuesday, injuring 19 people in San Francisco. Before driving to The City, Popal also allegedly hit 54-year-old pedestrian Stephen J. Wilson in Fremont, killing him. Popal did not appear in court on Thursday. He was at San Francisco General Hospital under psychiatric evaluation. Thompson argued that Popal would be dangerous if released from police custody. He said Popal had indicated that he wanted to kill a police officer during his alleged rampage Tuesday, but didn’t see one. Popal’s father and mother, who relatives say were highly protective of the 29-year-old, offered no comment as they left the courtroom. Attorney Majeed Samara, who had been speaking for the family, appeared briefly at the courtroom Thursday, but only to tell the family in person that he could not represent Popal. After the hearing, Public Defender Jeff Adachi said Popal did not have sufficient resources to hire a private attorney. “The family has no statement to make except to express their sympathy to everyone who was injured in this case,” Adachi said. Adachi and Deputy Public Defender William Maas said Popal will not be able to appear in court to enter a plea until a psychiatric examination is completed at San Francisco General Hospital. Maas and Adachi would not comment on whether the defense would seek a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. “All we know is that there appear to be some very severe mental problems that have been mentioned … but it’s way too early to tell,” Maas said. Seven of Popal’s alleged victims were transported to San Francisco General Hospital, where four remain. One of those patients remained in critical condition in the intensive care unit on Thursday, Department of Public Health spokeswoman Eileen Shields said. Three more were in good to fair condition in the medical surgical unit. Popal faces 18 felony counts of attempted murder and 18 counts of assault with a deadly weapon — one count for each civilian victim. He also faces one charge of battery on a police officer causing injury and one charge of reckless evasion from police. Popal faces life in prison for his San Francisco charges. On Thursday, he was charged with murder in Alameda County in connection with the Fremont death. Vera Jenkins DeFrantz, who was struck as she tried to cross the street to meet her husband for lunch, said she was lucky that she hadn’t fallen to the ground, where the car could have run her over. Although she was hurt, she had no broken bones. “It felt unreal,” DeFrantz said. “I was crossing the street. He waited for the lady in front of me to cross. Then I heard him rev his engine. He meant to hit me, he meant to hurt me. He wanted to kill me.” Examiner ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is an update on the newsfront about this case. I agree that if it had been a different person in the vehicle, this would be a media circus. As it is, this is probably the only update to the story that will be forthcoming. He'll cop an insanity defense, do six months in a mental resort and be free to do more harm. I don't see much 'jail' time for him if any at all. Maybe we can take a lesson from this playbook. Instead of the saying, 'The truth will set you free.' it is now 'Insanity will set you free.' Remember, if the SUV doesn't fit, you must acquit. Or, maybe this guy was 'driven' to it by the pressures of living in a non-middle eastern society and couldn't deal with it so he thought to eliminate some people so the pressure will be lessened for him. Either way he should be found guilty and done away with. I don't care if he is totally retarded. He had enough smarts to get a driver's license. He had enough smarts to know how to get to S.F. He had enough smarts to pick a target. He had enough smarts to search for a target, cops. He even possibly had the smarts enough to pay the toll at the bridge. With all those smarts, how can he be insane or even slightly retarded? Shoot him now and save us the expense of a trial. There is no doubt as to his guilt and no excuse for his actions, mental or otherwise. I guess I need to contact the LEOs around here and volunteer to do my good deed.
Lock him in a gymnasium with all the victim's families... and give each of the family members baseball bats and 30 minutes before opening the doors. Ric
