| Poor Legal Work Behind Problems In Scores of PA Death-Penalty Cases ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Appeals courts have reversed or sent back for new hearings 125 death-penalty cases in Pennsylvania because mistakes by defense lawyers deprived the accused of a fair trial, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. That is nearly one-third of the state's 391 capital convictions since the modern death penalty took effect in 1978. An Inquirer review of appeals over three decades found that lawyers in these high-stakes cases failed clients in ways large and small. Lawyers often spend little time preparing cases and put on only the barest defense. They neglect basic steps, such as interviewing defendants, seeking out witnesses, and investigating a defendant's background. Court-appointed lawyers get $2,000 for preparation and $400 a day in court to handle cases that a veteran attorney said required a minimum outlay of $35,000 to $40,000. "The number of reversals on these cases is staggering," said Ronald Greenblatt of the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "The attorneys who are doing this work, because of the low pay, are not doing it the right way. We really need it to stop." |
| Anonymous Hacking Group Takes Down IACP Website ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The hactivist collective Anonymous, which had a hand in starting the Occupy Wall Street protest, has hacked many police websites, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which is holding its annual convention in Chicago, reports Gawker.com. The IACP's website was down on Saturday and Sunday but was back up as of Monday morning. Anonymous said the hack was timed to the IACP meeting as part of a "Day of Action Against Police Brutality." The group said it leaked more than 600 MB of private information, including internal documents, membership rosters, addresses, Social Security numbers, and other confidential data. Another document appears to be about 1,000 user names and passwords belonging to the Boston Patrolmans' Association. |
| 93 Milwaukee Cops Break The Law, Aren't Fired or Prosecuted ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At least 93 Milwaukee police officers - ranking from street cop to captain - have been disciplined for violating the laws and ordinances they were sworn to uphold, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found. The offenses range from sexual assault and domestic violence to drunken driving and shoplifting. All still work for the police department, where they have the authority to make arrests, testify in court, and patrol neighborhoods. Officers who run afoul of the law often aren't fired or prosecuted, the newspaper found. The police department, district attorney, and Fire and Police Commission share responsibility for keeping officers in line. All three fall short. The department tolerates misconduct. Prosecutors give cops career-saving deals. The commission reduces punishments when officers break rules. Police who cross to the other side of the law keep the power that comes with the badge. Citizens have no way of knowing whether the officers responsible for protecting them have tarnished records. |
| New York City Police Morale "As Bad As I've Ever Seen It" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With the New York Police Department facing a blizzard of damning incidents, cops and police brass say morale is perilously low, reports the New York Daily News. A veteran Bronx officer said anonymously, "You're a robot. You're under the microscope. You're under video surveillance. We feel like the perpetrators now, the way we're being displayed." A ticket-fixing scandal has hung over the department like a black cloud for the past two years. The negative press has intensified in recent months with the emergence of several new scandals. A spate of false drug busts - known as "flaking," cop talk for planting cocaine on innocent victims - led to the arrests of eight cops and a sweeping shakeup. This month, an officer was hit with federal civil rights charges for falsely arresting a black man on Staten Island because of his race. A series of apparently strongarm police tactics in dealing with Occupy Wall Street protesters - most notably, a deputy inspector's use of pepper spray on two women - has left the department with a very public black eye. Pat Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said, "Morale is as bad as I've ever seen it." |
| Is Locking Up Elderly Inmates An Unnecessary Public Expense? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yohannes Johnson, 55, serving 75 years to life in an upstate New York prison, heads the Lifer's and Long-Termer's Organization, part of a growing club of inmates locked up for life nationwide, reports the Associated Press. Corrections officials are considering different options for older inmates while some research suggests keeping them locked up until they die might be an expensive and unnecessary price for the public to pay. Nationally, nearly 10 percent of more than 2.3 million inmates were serving life sentences in 2008, including 41,095 people doing life without parole, up 22 percent in five years, says The Sentencing Project, which advocates alternatives to prison. "The theme is we're protecting society, then the question is: From what?" said Soffiyah Elijah of the Correctional Association of New York, a watchdog group. She said with the cost of keeping a state inmate $55,000 a year - a cost that grows as they age and their medical needs increase - a financial analysis shows that parole and probation are far cheaper punishments that can also satisfy the public need for retribution. Data show new crimes by convicted felons steadily declining from their teens through their dotage. "What kind of treatment programs should we be considering for the offenders who have a sentence of life without parole, or enter the system with sentences of 50 years to life?" New York Corrections Commissioner Brian Fischer asked on the 40th anniversary of the deadly riots at Attica, a maximum-security prison in New York State. |
| U.S. Gang Membership Believed Up 40% In 2 Years, FBI Reports ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The gang problem in the U.S. is growing and there are 1.4 million members in 33,000 gangs--a 40 percent increase from two years ago--says a new FBI study reported by Associated Press. Gangs are collaborating with transnational drug trafficking organizations to make more money and are expanding the range of their illicit activities, engaging in mortgage fraud and counterfeiting as well as trafficking in guns and drugs, says the 2011 national gang threat assessment. Gang membership "continues to flourish" and gang leaders are striking new alliances with other criminal organizations for profit, said FBI agent Jayne Challman. White-collar crime is an increasing gang focus. The report cited the arrest of a member in a Los Angeles gang called Florencia 13 for operating a lab that manufactured pirated video games. Gang membership is up most significantly in the Northeast and Southeast and many communities report an increase in ethnic-based gangs such as African, Asian, and Caribbean gangs. |
| Chicago Arrests 130 "Occupy" Protesters Who Refuse to Leave Park ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chicago police arrested about 130 Occupy Chicago protesters starting about 1 a.m. Sunday after the group returned to Grant Park for the second weekend Saturday night and tried to maintain a camp in the park after its official closing time, the Chicago Tribune reports. Police estimated that the crowd that showed up for a rally earlier in the evening peaked at around 3,000. As the 11 p.m. park closing approached, more than 100 people decided to stay in the park. Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he consulted with Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy before arrests were made last weekend. Occupy Chicago has demanded that the city drop charges against protesters. "The 1st Amendment guarantees the American people the right to peaceably assemble," the group said. "Today we are going to use that right. Occupy Chicago calls on all local citizens to stand up and join us in this struggle." |
| 30 Arrested in NYC Stop-and-Frisk Protest; Bloomberg Defends Practice ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ About 30 people, including the civil rights campaigner and Princeton professor Cornel West, were arrested at a police station in New York City's Harlem neighborhood during a protest of police stop-and-frisks, the New York Times reports. Dozens of activists and people who described themselves as victims of stop-and-frisk began their demonstration on a corner that West, an organizer of the rally, said had been "consecrated by giants like Malcolm X." The practice of stop-and-frisk, in which the police stop people on the street and sometimes frisk them, has been criticized by minority and civil rights groups that complain that blacks and Hispanics are unfairly singled out. Last year the department made more than 600,000 of the warrantless stops, and it is on pace to exceed that number this year. While the police say there is a valid reason for the stops, including suspicious behavior, opponents of the practice note that very few stops result in arrests. Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the tactic, saying, "It's used in communities where we have lots of guns and lots of murder victims, and we've brought crime down 35 percent in the last 10 years." |
| Five-Ton IN Pot Seizure Will Have "Profound Impact" On Mexican Cartel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An investigation that started in March with money falling from a hidden compartment in a truck ended as apparently the largest drug bust in Indiana history, reports the Indianapolis Star. More than 5 tons of marijuana and more than $4.3 million are now in law enforcement hands, with four men in the Marion County Jail. The size of the bust has law enforcement confident that they have, at least for now, halted a large drug distribution operation in Indianapolis and probably affected a Mexican drug cartel. "This is going to have a profound impact," said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler. "This is one of those rare cases where you get both the drug proceeds and the actual product, so this organization has obviously suffered a significant setback, if not been eliminated entirely by a seizure of this nature. U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett said the financial hit to the Mexican cartel, which authorities believe was the originator of the marijuana and the ultimate destination of the cash, is far more than the $4.3 million seized here. While the bulk value of the marijuana - 10,505 pounds, or 5.25 tons - is about $5 million, Hogsett said, the street value "could be upwards of 10 times that amount." |
| How Police Use Facebook, Myspace To Find "Spider Web of Connections" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It took a few keystrokes for police in Prince George's County, Md., to find a drug suspect's user profile on Facebook, where he had posted a photo of himself wearing a "very distinctive" purple and teal shirt, says the Washington Post. The arrest of the alleged dealer shows the increasing use of social networking sites by gangs to broadcast messages, boast of successes, and recruit new members. The sites offer a never-ending panoply of gang members' comments about drug dealing, weapons, and violence, as well as photographs of gang tattoos and of members flashing gang signs and standing under gang-related graffiti - an intelligence boon for law enforcement. Police and federal agents often turn first to Facebook and Myspace to gather information about gangs, their members, and their "friends." Officers in Washington, D.C., comb sites to produce a weekly "Social Media" report for detectives on the latest information and trends related to street gangs, an evolving universe of idiosyncratic neighborhood crews with assorted alliances and beefs. "It's like a spider web of connections," said police Lt. Michael Pavlik. "You find one and track that down, and find a friend and then follow that. It's a wealth of information, and it helps you keep up with them in a way we never imagined just a few years ago." |
| 56 Officers Killed On Duty Last Year, Up 8 from 2009: FBI ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fixty-six law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty last year, the FBI reported today; 72 officers died in accidents while performing their duties; and 53,469 officers were assaulted in the line of duty. The 56 felonious deaths occurred in 22 states and Puerto Rico. The total increased by eight over 2009. Five- and 10-year comparisons show an increase of eight felonious deaths over 2006 and a decrease of 14 compared with 2001. Of the 56 feloniously killed, 15 were ambushed; 14 were involved in arrest situations; eight were investigating suspicious persons/circumstances; seven were performing traffic stops/pursuits; six were answering disturbance calls; three were involved in tactical situations (e.g., high-risk entry); two were conducting investigative activity such as surveillance, searches, or interviews; and one was killed while transporting or maintaining custody of prisoners. Fifty-five officers were killed with firearms, including 38 handguns, 15 rifles, two with shotguns, and one with a vehicle. Of the 72 officers killed in accidents on duty, 45 were killed in vehicle accidents; the number of accidental line-of-duty deaths was up 24 from 2009. |
| DEA Imposes Emergency Ban On 3 "Bath Salt" Stimulants ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Drug Enforcement Administration took emergency action to ban three synthetic stimulants used to make products that are marketed at head shops and on the Web as "bath salts," but are actually used as recreational drugs that mimic the effects of cocaine, LSD, and methamphetamine, the New York Times reports. The measure puts mephedrone, methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and methylone under the most restrictive federal category for at least a year. The products, sometimes called plant food, are sold in powder or crystal form under names like Bliss, Purple Wave, Vanilla Sky, and Ivory Wave. Though not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for consumption, they have become increasingly popular, especially among teenagers and young adults. Some states have already banned bath salts, which sell for $25 to $50 for a 50-milligram packet. Some chemicals found in these products are related to an organic stimulant found in Arab and East African countries called khat, which is illegal in the U.S. |
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
24 Oct 2011
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