Here are today's articles. Anyone is welcome to post their thoughts. Jan. 13, 2011 Today's Stories -- Concerns About Bans Prompt A Surge In Gun Accessory Sales -- 15 Years Later, TX Murder Of Amber Alert Namesake Is Unsolved -- For Obsessed Killer, A Blurred Line Between Reality, Fantasy -- Behind Bars In Florida, Honey Buns Have A Special Currency -- Troubled Texas Juvenile Justice Agency May Face Reorganization -- High Court Revisits Issue Of When, Why Police Can Search Homes -- Ban On High-Capacity Gun Clips A 'Common-Sense' Policy Change -- TX Prison Phone Profit Hasn't Panned Out; Tweaks Ahead? -- Politics Roils NJ High Court In Battle Over Gov. Christie's Tactics -- Book Explains Ex-Ohio AG's Advocacy On Wrongful Convictions -- After School Shooting, Omaha Cops Rethink Gun-Storage Rules -- In Trend, Emergency Crews See More Key Lockboxes In Homes You may go to TheCrimeReport.org to search all archived CJN stories. Please e-mail Ted Gest at CJJ with concerns about the editorial content of our news items, to suggest news stories, or with general comments. |
| Concerns About Bans Prompt A Surge In Gun Accessory Sales ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gun shops report a run on accessories such as extended magazines like that used in Saturday's mass shooting in Tucson, reports USA Today. Customers apparently are motivated by fears that lawmakers will try to limit magazine capacity in the wake of the shooting. Jared Loughner allegedly used a Glock 19 with an extended magazine to kill six people and wound 13 more, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. A random check of dozens of gun stores across the nation by USA TODAY reporters found no indication that sales of Glock guns are surging, but some reported increased customer interest in the extended magazines. "We have seen an uptick in high-capacity magazine purchases, but not specifically Glocks," says Jonathan Pirkle of Coal Creek Armory in Knoxville, Tenn. He says that if talk of a ban "lasts a month, then you will see them going quickly." Gregg Wolff, owner of two Glockmeister stores in Arizona and a website that specializes in Glock pistols and accessories, also says customers are stocking up on the extended magazines. The FBI says it conducted 7,906 background checks for handgun purchases Monday; the same day in 2010, there were 7,522. The checks don't reflect actual sales. High-profile shootings often prompt increased interest in the firearms used, says Andrew M. Molchan, director of the Professional Gun Retailers Association. "It's the notoriety," he says, and the "talk about banning things." |
| 15 Years Later, TX Murder Of Amber Alert Namesake Is Unsolved ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fifteen years ago today, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted as she rode her bicycle in the parking lot of an abandoned story in east Arlington, Texas. Police say they are no closer to making an arrest than they were in 1996, but Amber's legacy survives in the Amber Alert system operating in some form in 50 states and several foreign countries, reports the Dallas Morning News. The notification system has been credited with saving 500 abducted or missing children since its inception and is widely praised by experts as an essential tool for quickly moving to rescue endangered children. But some critics say the system isn't nearly as prolific at saving the lives of children who are in real danger - primarily youngsters abducted by homicidal sexual predators who don't know their victims - as its supporters claim. "It's not that the Amber Alert is bad, it's just not as good as people think," said Dr. Jack Levin, professor of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University. Levin said there "might be a hundred cases a year where a child is actually abducted by a stranger, sexually abused and then killed. So you're not going to see too many success stories. But even where there are apparent successes, and the Amber Alert is used, that doesn't necessarily mean that it was the Amber Alert that caused the child to be returned home." |
| For Obsessed Killer, A Blurred Line Between Reality, Fantasy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In a detailed profile, the Washington Post describes Tucson mass shooter Jared Loughner as a seemingly normal teenager who slipped in a "world of fantasy." He was an only child from a family that had a history of mental illness, a cousin told the newspaper. The Post said of Loughner, "Slowly but steadily, his intelligence warped into a distorted, disconnected series of obsessions." Interviews and his own writings show no evidence that politics or government were among Loughner's defining or enduring obsessions. Rather, his deepest, most disturbing questions were about the very nature of reality: He appeared to have lost any clear sense of the line between real life and dreams or fantasy. Loughner's father, Randy, was no career man; he worked jobs here and there, laying carpet, installing pool decks. In later years, he stayed home and worked on his show cars. He kept mainly to himself, neighbors say, and when he did interact with others, the results were often bad: He had tiffs about incursions onto his property; he yelled at people. Before long, some neighbors were telling their children to steer clear of the Loughner place. The feeling was mutual: Some years back, Loughner surrounded his house with a wall that blocked views of his side porch. In 1986, Loughner married Amy Totman, a quiet sort, but someone others found more pleasant and approachable than her husband. Amy worked for the Pima County parks department, taking care of plants and doing maintenance. |
| Behind Bars In Florida, Honey Buns Have A Special Currency ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Associated Press profiles the lowly honey bun, the vending machine staple that has a special currency behind bars in Florida. Inmates in the Florida prison system buy 270,000 honey buns a month, more than tobacco, envelopes and cans of Coke. Honey buns have taken on lives of their own among the criminal class: as currency for trades, as bribes for favors, as relievers for stress and substitutes for addiction. They've become birthday cakes, hooch wines, last meals even ingredients in a massive tax fraud. The AP says the honey bun reveals a great deal about life behind bars. Jailhouse cuisine is a closely calculated science. A day's meals inside the mess hall must be hearty enough to meet the 2,750-calorie count, healthy enough to limit fat and sodium, easy enough for prison cooks to prepare and cheap enough to meet the state's average grocery bill about $1.76 per inmate per day. Yet the meals are made to guarantee very little except survival. Honey buns, fried dough in a bag, are a sugary treat. The 6 ounces of a Mrs. Freshley's Grand Honey Bun, the favored pastry of Florida's prisons, serve up 680 calories, 51 grams of sugar and 30 grams of fat. The icing is sticky and frost white, like Elmer's Glue. The taste bears all the subtlety of a freshly licked sugar cube. |
| Troubled Texas Juvenile Justice Agency May Face Reorganization ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission recommended fundamental changes to the troubled Texas Youth Commission, suggesting reforms haven't worked, reports the Dallas Morning News. The agency is among 28 that could see changes this year after being reviewed by the commission designed to keep state agencies operating efficiently. The Legislature must approve any changes. Sunset staff members had advised giving the scandal-plagued Youth Commission six more years to straighten out. But the 12-member commission, made up mostly of lawmakers, unanimously recommended eliminating the agency and merging it with the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission to create the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. Sunset Commission officials, in a report released last year, argued that continuing problems at the Texas Youth Commission pose a significant challenge to effective operation of the system. The report also estimated that the merger of the agencies could save as much as $28 million. The Youth Commission runs correctional programs and institutions for the state's young felony and misdemeanor offenders. In 2007, the Legislature enacted radical reforms after sexual abuse of inmates by adult supervisors was exposed. |
| High Court Revisits Issue Of When, Why Police Can Search Homes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Supreme Court is revisiting the issue of when and why police should be allowed to search a citizen's home, reports the New York Times. On Wednesday, the court heard arguments in a case about what the police were entitled to do after smelling marijuana outside a Kentucky apartment. Two justices voiced concerns that the court may be poised to eviscerate an older ruling on the matter. "Aren't we just simply saying they can just walk in whenever they smell marijuana, whenever they think there's drugs on the other side?" Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, considering what a decision against the defendant would signal to the police. "Why do we even bother giving them a warrant?" The old ruling, from 1948, involved the search of a hotel room in Seattle. The smell of drugs could provide probable cause for a warrant, Justice Robert H. Jackson wrote for the majority, but it did not entitle the police to enter without one. "No suspect was fleeing or likely to take flight," Justice Jackson wrote. "The search was of permanent premises, not of a movable vehicle. No evidence or contraband was threatened with removal or destruction." In the new case, police officers in Kentucky were looking for a suspect who had sold cocaine to an informant. They smelled burning marijuana coming from an apartment, knocked loudly and announced themselves. |
| Ban On High-Capacity Gun Clips A 'Common-Sense' Policy Change ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Writing at CNN.com, two prominent criminologists advocate a ban on high-capacity gun magazines as "a common-sense policy change that is likely to generate modest but important benefits to society at a very small cost." The mass shooting last weekend in Tucson was committed with a Glock 9 mm semiautomatic handgun equipped with a high-capacity magazine that held 31 bullets. Philip Cook of Duke University and Jens Ludwig of the University of Chicago said the shooting has prompted second-guessing about the decision by Congress in 2004 to allow the expiration of the assault weapons ban, which, among other things, banned the manufacture or import of new magazines holding more than 10 rounds. Cook and Ludwig note, "The tragedy in Tucson seems unlikely to stimulate much sustained political support for major new gun regulations, given how quickly public interest in this issue faded out after other mass shootings. A small sampling of these notorious cases helps demonstrate the point: Killeen, Texas; the Long Island Railroad; Jonesboro, Ark.; Columbine High School; Red Lake High School; Trolley Square Mall; Northern Illinois University; Virginia Tech; Binghamton, N.Y.; and, last August, in Lake Havasu City, Ariz." |
| TX Prison Phone Profit Hasn't Panned Out; Tweaks Ahead? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Texas prisoners have made and received more than 4.7 million telephone calls and sent and received 1.8 million e-mails since 2009, when the state became the last in the nation to allow inmates phone and e-mail access, reports the Texas Tribune. The calls and messages have generated about $6 million in revenue for the state, far less than the tens of millions of dollars some lawmakers had hoped to realize. Inmates' family members say the state could make much more money and further decrease the smuggling of cell phones into prisons with just a couple of changes to the phone policy. They point out that prisoners can only make calls to and receive calls from land line phones, not cell phones, which is impractical today. The lawmaker whose bill originally created the phone and e-mail program says the state needs to re-evaluate the operation. State Sen Leticia Van de Putte, a San Antonio Democrat, introduced the 2007 bill that required state authorities to find a company to install pay phones that inmates could use to keep in touch with family and others who form support systems for them outside prison walls. Before that, inmates could make only one five-minute phone call every three months. Van de Putte says she wrote the bill after watching a family member wait at her phone for weeks at a time, refusing to leave the house and bathing in the middle of the night, in case her loved one called from prison. |
| Politics Roils NJ High Court In Battle Over Gov. Christie's Tactics ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A political tug-of-war is roiling the New Jersey Supreme Court, where a justice stunned observers by refusing to vote on cases, reports the Wall Street Journal. Associate Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto, the abstaining judge, announced Wednesday that he will once again vote and write opinions in cases before the state's top court. But he also left open the option to continue abstaining based on his original protest of a temporary judge assigned to the court. "I shall defer a decision on casting a vote and reserve the right to abstain," he wrote in an opinion, crediting his new stance on an unnamed voice of "particularly sober, thoughtful, measured and ultimately persuasive analysis." Rivera-Soto injected himself last month into a fight over the makeup of the court by abstaining from all cases in protest of the appointment of a temporary judge by the chief justice to fill a vacant spot. It all began in May, when Gov. Chris Christie kicked a sitting justice off the bench. By tradition, governors in the past typically re-appointed sitting Supreme Court justices for tenure. Democratic lawmakers have since refused to hold hearings on Christie's nominee. The court's chief justice called up an appellate judge to fill the seventh seat, as often happens when Supreme Court justices are unable to participate in cases. |
| Book Explains Ex-Ohio AG's Advocacy On Wrongful Convictions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In a new book, former Ohio attorney general Jim Petro writes about his gradual embrace of advocacy on behalf of those wrongfully convicted. Cleveland Plain Dealer Connie Shultz says Petro's transformation began with a series in the newspaper about Michael Green, who spent 13 years locked up for a rape he did not commit. "The series [about Green] .. was my introduction to the travesty of wrongful criminal conviction," Petro writes in "False Justice," co-authored with his wife, writer Nancy Petro. "I didn't know it then, but for me, Michael Green had broken the seal on a Pandora's box." The Petros began to examine other cases of wrongful conviction. The book's subtitle makes it clear where the self-described law-and-order prosecutor has landed on the issue: "Eight Myths that Convict the Innocent." In a brave and graceful narrative, the Petros describe how their basic assumptions about guilt and innocence were shattered. They also expertly rebut the following myths: Everyone in prison claims innocence; our system almost never convicts an innocent person; only guilty people confess; wrongful convictions result from innocent human error; an eyewitness is the best evidence; conviction errors get corrected on appeal; it dishonors the victim to question a conviction, and if the justice system has problems, the pros will fix them. |
| After School Shooting, Omaha Cops Rethink Gun-Storage Rules ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Omaha Police Department is reviewing its off-duty weapons storage policy in light of school shooting in which a teenager used his father's service revolved to kill an assistant principal and himself. The Omaha World-Herald says the local gun-storage policy is "is more vague and arguably looser than many agencies' policies." Robert Butler Jr. shot took the gun from his father's bedroom closet. The officer had a gun safe, but the weapon was not in the safe. Police have not said whether the gun had a trigger lock on it. The Omaha Police Department policy says: "Officers will not store or leave a firearm in any place within the reach or easy access of a minor or unauthorized individual." Police are trained and encouraged to use gun and trigger locks or gun safes to store their weapons, "but that is an individual's responsibility to do so," Omaha Police Chief Alex Hayes said. That's acceptable to the Commission on Law Enforcement Accreditation Standards. The Omaha Police Department is one of several hundred agencies nationwide to have earned accreditation from the commission, which requires intense review of policies and procedures. Another national organization, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, recommends the following regulation in its model policy on firearms: "Officers shall be responsible for the safe storage of their duty weapon and any other personally owned firearms when not in their personal possession by using trigger locks, safes, gunlock boxes, or other means approved by the department armorer or range master as designated by this department." |
| In Trend, Emergency Crews See More Key Lockboxes In Homes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lockboxes with keys inside have long been used by businesses and high-rises to give emergency crews access. Now, they're increasingly seen in individual homes, reports USA Today. Suburban communities such as St. Charles County near St. Louis; Covington, Ohio, outside Dayton; and the Phoenix suburb of Avondale are among those with programs. People can check with their police or fire departments to see whether they offer the service, says Jack Parow, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. "It makes it a lot easier for us," Parow says. "It's more of a peace of mind, especially for people who call us a lot." The boxes typically come in either a combination or key model that can be mounted to the home or hung on the door. Combinations typically are kept in dispatch computers and released to crews en route. Emergency response officials like the idea, because without easy access, first responders must often smash a window or break in a door. |
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Thursday, January 13, 2011
Articles for 13 January 2011
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