Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
All
rights reserved. No claim to original government forms
Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
All
rights reserved. No claim to original government forms
Red Light Needed for MIRT Devices
The device can change traffic lights to green from red in two seconds. Police and fire departments for years have used MIRT, marketed by the 3M company, to clear intersections and halt opposing traffic on emergency runs.
That is the proper and intended use for MIRT.
It never was intended for the travel convenience of individual drivers. But, increasingly, that's how it's being used today.
Some Internet entrepreneurs, apparently more interested in cash than in road rage, or the possibility of a fatal crash, have been offering MIRT and MIRT knockoffs for $300. Their pitches are quite tempting: "Never wait for a red light again!" and "Tired of Waiting for Red Lights?" and "Changes Stop Lights From Red to Green in Seconds."
Of course, there are buyers; and at the moment, the commerce is legal.
MIRT transmits an infrared beam, instead of a radio wave. The Federal Communications Commission regulates the use of radio waves. Infrared transmission falls outside of the agency's purview. As a result, currently, there are no federal laws restricting civilian use of MIRT technology.
This, many police and auto insurance officials believe, is a problem. In cities and states nationwide, traffic safety officials are studying the possibility of implementing laws to make civilian MIRT sales and use illegal. That's a good thing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47227-2003Oct31.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:43 PM
matt@lefande.com
Motorcycle deaths rise after helmet-law repeal
When Mark Key crashed his motorcycle in downtown Louisville on July 23, 2002, he wasn't wearing a helmet. His head injuries were so severe that doctors told his wife, Monica, to prepare for the worst.
"Two doctors predicted to her, `Don't look for him to make it tonight,'" Key said he was told later.
But Key survived, just missing becoming one of the rising number of motorcycle deaths in Kentucky since the state's mandatory helmet law was repealed in 1998.
Motorcycle deaths increased by 58 percent in the two years after the helmet law was scrapped, and use of helmets quickly dropped, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The study focused on Kentucky and Louisiana, which repealed its helmet law in 1999. In that state, motorcycle deaths soared by 111 percent in the two years after repeal, the study said.
"The findings aren't any surprise," said traffic agency spokesman Rae Tyson. "It is pretty consistent with what we see whenever a state repeals its helmet law."
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2003/10/30ky/wir-front-motorcycle1030-11361.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:13 PM
matt@lefande.com
'Patriotic' Stick Figure Drawing Troubles School
A 14-year-old New Jersey schoolboy — whose dad and stepdad are in the military — was suspended for five days because he drew a "patriotic" stick figure of a U.S Marine blowing away a Taliban fighter, officials said yesterday.
"He's been punished for the drawing," said Tinton Falls school superintendent Leonard Kelpsh. "We felt it was highly inappropriate, and we took it very seriously."
Scott Switzer, of Colts Neck, was sent home last week from Tinton Falls Middle School after a teacher saw the image on a computer and described it to the principal.
Scott, who turned 14 Tuesday and was headed back to school Wednesday, said he was unjustly disciplined for his sketch of "a war scene."
"Truth be told, it's a Marine shooting a terrorist Taliban," he told The Post. "It's just a picture. What upsets me most is that the principal would dare say it's not normal. To me, it's patriotic."
Kelpsh said the five-day punishment was appropriate, adding that he would not discuss Scott's prior disciplinary record. But family members said the teenager had been involved in three "minor" incidents, including an earlier suspension.
"I don't attribute pathological significance to it," said Dr. Gloria Tillman, a psychologist who treated the boy for ADD.
"I have to wonder what is expected of our children today when our country is at war, and both his father and stepfather are out fighting the war."
Scott's mother said school officials described the drawing as "not the work of a normal mind."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,101569,00.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:04 PM
matt@lefande.com
24 Officers Have Faced Charges in 2003
Two dozen D.C. police officers have been arrested this year on a range of charges, including attempted murder, assault, grand larceny and drunken driving, according to police and court records.
More D.C. officers have been arrested so far this year than in all of 2002, when 22 faced charges. The percentage of arrested officers on the 3,600-member force is much greater than that of other big cities as well as the area's suburbs.
One D.C. officer is accused of shooting a teenager in south Baltimore. Another pleaded guilty to operating while impaired after his Jeep hit a marked police cruiser. The most recent case unfolded last week, when officer David E. Parnigoni was accused of stripping naked during games with 11-year-old boys at a house in Northwest Washington and at his home in Virginia.
D.C. Council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 2), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said this year's arrests seem to reflect "severe management deficiencies."
Gary Hankins, a former D.C. police officer and consultant to the city's police union, questioned the caliber of recruits the department is getting, saying many good candidates are drawn to other local and federal police departments that have better pay and benefits.
"Are [D.C. police] competitive for getting the very best, the very brightest and the most stable individuals? No, we're not," he said.
Patterson and Hankins said the arrests could show flaws in the department's disciplinary process, in the way it teaches stress management and in the way it recruits and screens new officers.
The 24 arrests among D.C. officers is in sharp contrast to the tally from departments in Alexandria and Montgomery, Prince George's, Fairfax, Arlington and Prince William counties, which together have 4,800 officers and just five arrests this year.
But even among other big city police departments, D.C. police appear to have more problems. In New York City, for instance, 75 officers have been arrested this year out of a force of about 37,000. That works out to about two arrests per 1,000 officers.
This year, the D.C. police numbers work out to about 6.6 arrests per 1,000 officers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17642-2003Oct25.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:12 AM
matt@lefande.com
Armed Citizen of the Week
Shirla Menendez thought she was seconds away from dying when a gun was held to her head at her parents' house near Baldwin.
Menendez, 49, said she was forced to tie up her elderly father Sunday after an 18-year-old man entered the home and demanded drugs, money and guns.
''God must have been looking out for us because there is no reason we should be alive,'' she said yesterday.
She was saved by her 77-year-old father, who managed to untie himself and fatally shoot John Lechner Jr., police said.
Menendez said this was the first time that her father, Claude Allen, had fired a weapon since World War II.
Menendez lives next door to her parents in a heavily wooded area on the Westside and was visiting them about 7 p.m. when the robber walked through their front door.
He had a black semi-automatic pistol in his right hand and was using his left hand to hold a dark T-shirt to his head to conceal his face, she said.
Menendez said he took her into her parents' bedroom to get her out of the way and was going to shoot her in the head until he noticed her mother's jewelry box.
''The reason he kept me alive is I had to carry the jewelry box,'' Menendez said. ''He told me he was taking me to the other room to kill me.''
While they were in the bedroom, her father was able to get free and arm himself with a 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol.
As Lechner walked back through the home with Menendez, Allen shot and killed him.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/092199/met_2b1viole.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:45 PM
matt@lefande.com
Flares ignite in trunk; police car is destroyed
Flares stored in the back of a Tucson police car ignited Wednesday morning, and officials are looking at safer ways of containing the devices.
Wednesday's fire was the third related to flares in Tucson police cars in the past 18 months, said Deputy Chief Randy Ogden, a spokesman for the Tucson Fire Department.
The fire started in the flare box and spread to the rest of the car, destroying it, Ogden said.
"The problem is, the flares are very flammable.
"Once you take the top off, there's a striker, and if they have any friction at all they ignite," Ogden said.
Fire investigators will work with the Police Department's fleet services and city risk management officials to develop better ways of containing the flares, Ogden said.
The fire started at about 9 a.m. when Sgt. Sean Cunneely was driving his patrol car near North Alvernon Way and East Fifth Street, said Sgt. Judy Altieri, a police spokeswoman.
Cunneely smelled smoke and saw smoke coming from the trunk.
He pulled over and called for assistance.
He was not injured, Altieri said.
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/31023FLAREFIRE.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 6:07 PM
matt@lefande.com
Internet Trafficking in Narcotics Has Surged
In July 2001, regulators at the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy noticed something unusual among the reams of data that flow into the busy agency each day. Buried along with the other numbers was a report from a small Internet pharmacy that had filled 1,105 prescriptions for painkillers and other dangerous drugs that month.
The same tiny pharmacy had dispensed just 17 prescriptions in the prior six months.
Virtually overnight, prescriptiononline.com had become one of the largest distributors of controlled substances in Nevada. Over the next year, the online pharmacy shipped nearly 5 million doses of highly addictive drugs to customers scattered across the country. By the time regulators shut the Las Vegas firm in January, prescriptiononline.com accounted for 10 percent of all hydrocodone sold in Nevada, regulators said.
It turned out that the booming business was owned by a 23-year-old former restaurant hostess. But it was run by her father, who had been convicted of a felony in 1992.
"For any single pharmacy to account for 10 percent of any drug is incredible," said Louis Ling, general counsel to the Nevada pharmacy board. "The fact that it was a highly addictive painkiller and an Internet site run by a convicted felon was even more troubling. This was unlike anything we had ever seen."
With little notice or meaningful oversight, the Internet has become a pipeline for narcotics and other deadly drugs. Customers can pick from a vast array of painkillers, antidepressants, stimulants and steroids with few controls and virtually no medical monitoring.
There are dozens of legitimate online drugstores and mail-order pharmacies. Unlike rogue sites, they require customers to mail in prescriptions from their doctors. Typically, the legitimate sites offer a full range of medications, with painkillers accounting for less than 20 percent of their business.
In contrast, a majority of the rogue sites' sales are for hydrocodone, Xanax, Valium and a few other addictive drugs. Many work with middlemen who set up the sites' customers with doctors who are veritable script-writing machines. Some of those doctors have financial problems and histories of substance abuse or medical incompetence, records show.
The online merchants now feed a sprawling shadow market for prescription drugs, frustrating medical leaders alarmed by the threat to public health and investigators hard-pressed to keep up with nimble Web sites that can open and close at a moment's notice.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50567-2003Oct19.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:36 AM
matt@lefande.com
Armed Citizen of the Week
Store owner Anselmo Nieves shot and killed an armed robber who had turned his gun toward a customer. Tyrone Ingram, 32, walked into the Cidras Super Market, pointed a gun at a female cashier and announced a stickup. Nieves handed over the cash drawer and some cigarettes, police said. Ingram then allegedly hit Nieves over the head, knocking him to the floor. When a female customer entered the store, Ingram, who had a criminal record for armed robbery, allegedly pointed his gun at the woman. Nieves responded by grabbing his shotgun and firing at the robber killing him instantly, said Police News Affairs Officer Edward Alonzo. No charges will be filed against Nieves, who had narrowly escaped death a year earlier when a robber held a gun to his head and fired just as Nieves moved nicking his ear.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/index.html?ts=1066575274
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:54 AM
matt@lefande.com
Fairfax County Policeman Drives Off With Gun on Roof
A Fairfax County Police officer accidentally left his semi-automatic pistol on the roof of his patrol car and lost it. Police now say they need help in locating it.
The incident happened when the policeman finished his shift Tuesday night at the West Springfield District Station, and was getting ready to leave. As he put things into the car, he left his service weapon on the roof - which is where it was when he drove off.
According to police, he soon realized what he did and called his supervisors. But after searching the area where he had been driving, they couldn't find it. Now, they're asking for the public's help.
The gun is described as a black Sig Sauer and was in a black leather holster. The officer was driving on the Fairfax County Parkway to Braddock Road. The officer has not been suspended, but an investigation is underway, says a police department spokesman.
http://www.newschannel8.net/news/stories/1003/106624.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 6:56 AM
matt@lefande.com
Rodney King arrested for alleged domestic violence
Rodney King, the black motorist whose beating by Los Angeles police was videotaped a dozen years ago, was arrested for allegedly punching his girlfriend, authorities said today.
King, 38, was booked for investigation of domestic violence on Saturday then released Monday on $50,000 bail, a records clerk at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga said today.
In 1991, King was pulled over for speeding in Los Angeles' eastern San Fernando Valley, where he was beaten by police officers who said he acted menacingly and refused to follow their orders. A bystander videotaped four white Los Angeles officers pummeling King with their nightsticks and feet and shooting him with stun-gun darts.
After a jury acquitted the officers in 1992, riots broke out across Los Angeles and lasted four days, leaving 55 people dead and more than 2,000 injured. The mayhem caused $1 billion in property damage.
King received a $3.8 million settlement from the city Los Angeles in 1994.
King has had a series of run-ins with the law in the years that followed, including a 1999 domestic violence conviction. In 2001, he pleaded no contest to indecent exposure and being under the influence of PCP and was sentenced to a year in a drug treatment center.
King was sentenced last Aug. 27 after police said he raced through a Rialto intersection at more than 100 mph in his new SUV on April 13 before losing control of the car, striking a utility pole, crashing into a fence and hitting a house. Authorities said tests revealed he had a ``significant amount'' of PCP in his system.
A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge sentenced King to a three-month alcohol awareness program and six months of drug treatment, then four months in jail after he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and reckless driving.
He was also placed on three years probation.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/7011930.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:17 PM
matt@lefande.com
D.C. Officer On Bicycle Kills Suspect In Robbery
A robbery suspect was shot and killed last night in a confrontation with a D.C. police officer in Northeast Washington, police said.
The shooting occurred about 8 p.m. near the 300 block of 34th Street NE when a uniformed 6th District officer on patrol on a bicycle came upon what appeared to be a holdup, police said.
The officer, identified as Michael O'Harran, 24, spotted a man pointing a gun at several other people. As O'Harran approached, the gunman turned and pointed his gun at the officer, said Sgt. Joseph Gentile, the D.C. police spokesman.
Gentile said the officer fired his own gun, striking the would-be robber once in the chest.
The suspect was pronounced dead at Prince George's Hospital Center at 8:06 p.m., police said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18441-2003Oct13.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:46 AM
matt@lefande.com
Suspect jumps out of car, is hit by police cars
A drunken-driving suspect died after he kicked out a police car window, jumped out of the moving vehicle and was run over by two other patrol cars, authorities said.
The name of the 26-year-old man was not immediately released.
After police responded to a two-car accident about 11:20 p.m. Thursday, officers did field-sobriety tests on the man, said Arlington (Texas) police Sgt. Will Johnson.
When he started walking backward into traffic, officers tried to stop him and got into a scuffle with him, Johnson said.
The man was placed in a patrol car but kicked out the back window, Johnson said. He was then restrained more and put in another patrol car.
En route to jail, the man kicked out a window in that car, Johnson said. Officers were trying to stop on Interstate 20 when he jumped out of the car and was hit by two patrol vehicles following the car, Johnson said.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2149445
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:38 AM
matt@lefande.com
Judge found loud but not guilty
The appeal trial for Prince George's County Circuit Court Judge Herman C. Dawson involved an elementary school principal, a police recruit, a bartender, a coffee-man and shrimp on-the-barbie.
There were 10 witnesses who testified in the daylong trial Tuesday where Dawson was acquitted of charges of disturbing the peace at an Outback Steakhouse in Largo in February.
"Merely being loud at a bar is not disorderly conduct," said defense attorney William Brennan in his closing testimony at the nine-hour trial. "It may be rude or boorish, but it is not disorderly."
Dawson was convicted in Prince George's County District Court in June and appealed that decision to the Circuit Court.
According to witness testimony, Dawson, 48, became "irate and unruly" when he was repeatedly turned down after making advances on a 34-year-old woman who happened to be a Metropolitan police recruit and accidentally dropped her "shrimp on the barbie" entrée on his shoe. She called for backup when she felt Dawson was disturbing her when he asked her to wipe lettuce from his shoe and she refused.
At the time of the incident, Dawson refused to leave the restaurant but did leave the woman alone after she began yelling profanities and he was persuaded by his friends, James Jones, who owns a coffee brewery in Forestville and Sheila Murry-McConnel, principal at Arrowhead Elementary School, according Brennan. Dawson said he felt the woman also should have been asked to leave since she caused the commotion.
He was arrested outside of the restaurant after a manager called police when Dawson refused to leave.
"[Dawson] flashed his judge's badge and kept saying, 'Do you know who I am? I'm a judge. I'm not going nowhere,'" Cpl. Aaron Ajani testified at the trial. Ajani is a county police officer who was working off-duty as a security guard that night for the restaurant park.
Dawson's open tab at Outback was never paid.
http://www.gazette.net/200341/princegeorgescty/county/181835-1.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:35 AM
matt@lefande.com
70th Anniversary Of The First Attack On An Airline
Today (Oct. 10), marks a sad day in history: The 70th anniversary of the first attack against a commercial airline.
On October 10, 1933, a bomb exploded on board a United Airlines flight from Cleveland to Chicago, killing four passengers, two pilots and one flight attendant -- who was the first in her profession to die on the job.
U.S. government investigators concluded the plane was destroyed by a nitroglycerin bomb which went off in the cargo hold, but police never found the culprits or uncovered their motive.
Security analyst Andrew Thomas, who writes about the incident in his book, "Aviation Insecurity" (Prometheus Books), says the attack proves that commercial flights have been and always will be targets for bad guys who aren't necessarily terrorists.
He feels the incident is a lesson to today's security experts that they need to defend planes against criminals who may have motives other than terrorism, such as insurance fraud or revenge.
http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2003-10-10&nav=VIEW&id=D1NA198296Y031010
posted by Matthew LeFande 3:57 PM
matt@lefande.com
Armed Citizen of the Week
A local man is on a mission to get part of the new conceal and carry law thrown out. Bruce Krafft feels it violates his constitutional rights when shopping malls ban guns from their premises.
Krafft has a permit to carry a gun. He's carried his guns in full view on visits to two local malls in the past several weeks, hoping to get a chance to test the new law in court.
Krafft showed up at the Mall of America carrying two guns recently. Concerned shoppers contacted Mall security and he was handcuffed by police. After verifying that he had a permit to carry a gun, they let him go.
"It is a concern to us 'cause it is a concern to the public," said Lieutenant Perry Heles of the Bloomington Police Department. "People aren't used to seeing people walking around in shopping malls and in public with firearms in plain view."
"If I saw me, I would think, oh that is somebody who is exercising his rights," said Krafft. "I am sorry it frightens them. However, a hundred years ago the only people who concealed their weapons were criminals.”
Before the Bloomington incident, Krafft made an armed visit to the Maplewood Mall. The Maplewood police chief is concerned about potential safety issues.
"I am concerned with guns out there and more guns visible that an officer is going to pull up on a situation, and because of the way a person acts the officer may be forced to take action which could involve deadly force," said Maplewood Police Chief Dave Thomall.
The malls have signs posted at entrances banning guns. Krafft says he wants to get arrested so he can make his case against the bans in court.
"Any Mall that tries to deny people their fundamental rights, yes. I will be there."
http://wcco.com/crime/local_story_230171201.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 1:25 PM
matt@lefande.com
Teen Allegedly Ate Pizza, Watched TV During Triple Murder
Sean Eric Brown, 19, was arrested and questioned Tuesday in the deaths of Patricia Henry, 51; her fiance, James Koffer; and Henry's daughter, Patricia Stallworth, 15. Wednesday, he was charged with three counts of murder, two counts of rape and related charges. Police said he had no known address.
The bodies were discovered Sept. 23 in their Philadelphia home after Koffer's co-workers reported that he had not shown up for work for two days. They had all been shot in the head. The bodies of Stallworth and Koffer were found upstairs in the family home. Investigators later found Henry's body rolled up in a rug downstairs.
Police believe Brown followed Stallworth home Sept. 22 around 4 p.m. as she was carrying a pizza. He then allegedly went into the house and raped Stallworth. He heard snoring and discovered Koffer sleeping and shot him in the face. Investigators said Brown then shot Stallworth in the face and continued to rape her.
When he finished, he started to eat the pizza Stallworth brought home and watched "Monday Night Football" on the TV until Henry came home, police told Koffer's daughter. Brown then raped and shot Henry and continued to watch football. Police believe Brown was in the home for five or six hours.
http://www.msnbc.com/local/wcau/A1820960.asp
posted by Matthew LeFande 2:35 PM
matt@lefande.com
"Way too much" is not best reply.
When police asked a driver how much he'd had to drink, he responded "Way too much."
The 30-year-old Cleveland man was charged Friday with DUI. He was stopped for speeding 55 mph in a 35 mph zone on Warner Road and for running a red light. Police said the man swerved around another car stopped at the traffic light. He could not stand or walk without assistance, according to police. The driver registered .180 percent on a Breathalyzer test.
http://www.cleveland.com/crime/sun/index.ssf?/base/cops-0/1065112926172490.xml
posted by Matthew LeFande 1:36 PM
matt@lefande.com
Police decals misspell name of state
The name of the state has been misspelled on some Newport News police cruisers since April.
The last "i" was mistakenly omitted from at least 30 decals affixed to patrol cars at the city garage off Oyster Point Road.
In the days after Hurricane Isabel, a patrol officer noticed the Commonwealth of "Virgina" on his car and notified officials, said Allen Ward, acting director of vehicle services.
"We screwed up," Ward said. "It's an 'i.' It's easy to miss."
Employees at the city garage should have proofread the badge-shaped decals before putting them on the front fenders of the patrol cars, Ward said. But the lettering is small and difficult to read.
Ward said the misspelled badge decal is part of the graphic design kit for a police vehicle. The police department routinely replaces its vehicles and ordered 23 new design kits from a Florida company in April, Ward said.
Another order was placed after that. Ward said he believes all of those kits had the name of the state spelled wrong.
When a fleet services supervisor called the decal maker, Graphic Imaginations Fleet Markings, and told a company official about the misspelling, Ward said the vendor apologized and promised to reproduce the decals with the corrected spelling and send them overnight at no cost to Newport News.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-88772sy0oct08,0,2582144.story?coll=dp-news-local-final
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:15 AM
matt@lefande.com
A legit Use of Force investigation
Alexandria's chief prosecutor has determined that a white police officer acted lawfully when he struck a black man on the head with a metal baton while attempting to arrest him on a felony drug charge in August.
The incident touched off a protest rally and march to City Hall by angry residents who contend that the officer, Thomas Ritchie, used excessive force.
In a letter released by the police chief yesterday, Commonwealth's Attorney S. Randolph Sengel said that after reviewing witness statements, photographs of the scene and the medical examiner's conclusions about the head injury, he believes that accounts alleging that the suspect, Walter Peterson, was hit after he stopped running and surrendered "are simply not accurate."
When Ritchie warned Peterson that he was under arrest, he elected to flee, Sengel said the internal police investigation found. The street crimes officer repeatedly warned Peterson to stop, but he continued to run. Ritchie tried to strike him, but he ducked.
About 10 steps later and after another warning, Ritchie swung again, intending to hit him in the right arm. Peterson ducked again, and the baton hit him on the head, causing a laceration.
"Peterson's injury, while more serious than intended, was brought about by his own conduct, and was not the result of any unlawful action on the part of the officer," Sengel said in his letter to Police Chief Charles E. Samarra.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A920-2003Oct8.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:10 AM
matt@lefande.com
Senator's wife freed after abduction
The wife of U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire was abducted from her home in McLean at knifepoint Tuesday and forced to withdraw money from a bank before being released unharmed, police said
Investigators linked the incident to two similar ones in suburban Washington that had occurred since Monday.
The Fairfax County Police Department said Kathleen Gregg walked into her house about 9:30 a.m. and found two men waiting for her.
They forced Gregg, 52, into the family car and drove to a nearby Wachovia Bank branch, one of the men riding with her and the other following in a silver-colored car.
One of the suspects, a black man, entered the bank with Gregg as she withdrew money from a teller. A white man waited in the car.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/10/07/gregg.wife/index.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:05 PM
matt@lefande.com
Obey the suit
Never underestimate the power of a well dressed man.
http://www.obeythesuit.co.uk/
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:58 AM
matt@lefande.com
Murder hits 40-year low
The picture of who is dying and who is killing, assembled by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), shows that in the past quarter century about three of every four victims were male and 10 percent of killers are females.
The 25-year total includes 1,912 police officers killed on the job and 94,142 slain young men ages 18 to 24 — most killed in the kind of "gang-related" incidents that perplex big-city police chiefs.
Among findings in BJS' comprehensive examination of 507,681 murders from 1976 through 2000 (the last year in which the data have been analyzed completely):
•2000 was considered a good year because criminals took "only" 15,317 lives, down by 9,000 from annual tolls just a decade before.
•Blacks make up 12.1 percent of the nation's population but commit most of the murders and are over-represented among homicide victims. They are six times more likely to be murdered, and seven times more likely to kill.
•White criminals dominate among those executed and those waiting on death row. They most often commit serial or mass murders.
•The best way to prevent murder is to avoid arguments. They are the single leading factor that accounts for four of every 10 homicides.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/specialreport/20031005-120017-7049r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:48 PM
matt@lefande.com
FBI Agent's Weapon Recovered at Airport
Up to a dozen flights were delayed and a concourse was sealed off Saturday when an FBI agent reported his weapon and credentials missing. They were found 30 minutes later in a restaurant where he had eaten.
The agent, whose name was not released, apparently lost track of his bag when he left the restaurant to make a phone call, Transportation Security Administration spokesman Mike Fierberg said.
All planes at Concourse B gates were held after the agent alerted police, and passengers were not allowed to leave or enter the concourse, Fierberg said.
"It had the potential to be something serious. Fortunately it wasn't, except for that poor FBI agent who's going to have some explaining to do," Fierberg said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=718&e=10&u=/ap/20031005/ap_on_re_us/brf_airport_missing_weapon
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:04 PM
matt@lefande.com
Are terrorists now aiming to block shipping lanes and disrupt the flow of oil and other goods ?
ON MARCH 26th, the Dewi Madrim, a chemical tanker off the coast of Sumatra, was boarded by ten pirates from a speedboat. They were armed with machine guns and machetes and carried VHF radios. They disabled the ship's radio, took the helm and steered the vessel, altering speed, for about an hour. Then they left, with some cash and the captain and first officer, who are still missing.
So what? South-East Asia is the home of piracy. There was an alarming 37% increase in incidents during the first half of this year. Raiders board ships, steal cash and kidnap crew members, then hold them for ransom. Some criminals even steal a ship and sell its cargo—then repaint it, equip it with false documents and put it to work. The region, with its lax security and poor maritime supervision, is famous for such “ghost ships”.
But according to a new study* by Aegis Defence Services, a London defence and security consultancy, these attacks represent something altogether more sinister. The temporary hijacking of the Dewi Madrim was by terrorists learning to drive a ship, and the kidnapping (without any attempt to ransom the officers) was aimed at acquiring expertise to help the terrorists mount a maritime attack. In other words, attacks like that on the Dewi Madrim are the equivalent of the al-Qaeda hijackers who perpetrated the September 11th attacks going to flying school in Florida.
The likeliest terrorist target is a tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas (easier to explode than natural gas), reckons Aegis's Tim Spicer, formerly a British soldier and head of Sandline, a “private military company” (a euphemism for a supplier of mercenaries) that achieved notoriety for its work for the British government in Sierra Leone. He fears that hijacked gas and oil tankers could be used to block the Malacca Strait, or the Panama or Suez Canals. That could wreak economic havoc. The UN estimates that ships carry 80% of the world's traded cargo—5.8 billion tonnes in 2001.
http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2102424
posted by Matthew LeFande 6:25 PM
matt@lefande.com
Do gun laws prevent violence?
A sweeping federal review of the nation's gun control laws -- including mandatory waiting periods and bans on certain weapons -- found no proof such measures reduce firearm violence.
The review, released Thursday, was conducted by a task force of scientists appointed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC said the report suggests more study is needed, not that gun laws don't work. But the agency said it has no plans to spend more money on firearms study.
Some conservatives have said that the CDC should limit itself to studying diseases, and some have complained in the past that the agency has used firearms-tracking data to subtly push gun control. In fact, since a 1996 fight in Congress, the CDC has been prohibited from using funds to press for gun control laws.
Since then, the task force reviewed 51 published studies about the effectiveness of eight types of gun-control laws. The laws included bans on specific firearms or ammunition, measures barring felons from buying guns, and mandatory waiting periods and firearm registration. None of the studies were done by the federal government.
In every case, a CDC task force found "insufficient evidence to determine effectiveness."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/10/03/cdc.gun.laws.ap/index.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:49 AM
matt@lefande.com
Ghettopoly
It's sure not your typical board game with player pieces that include a machine gun, drugs and a bottle of malt liquor. You can forget about buying up hotels -- in this game you purchase crack houses instead.
Ghettopoly is designed with every ethnic group in mind including the Irish, Asians and Latinos. The game's creator is David Chang, who immigrated to America from Taiwan 20 years ago. It seems a lot of people aren't laughing. In fact, they are offended -- calling it racist pornography and the worst of stereotypes.
http://www.ghettopoly.com/
posted by Matthew LeFande 11:09 PM
matt@lefande.com
Pershing Park Investigation Confidential Report
I've posted a copy of the internal police investigation into the roundup of protesters and bystanders at a downtown Washington park last September that found that all 400 people were wrongfully arrested.
The internal report, released September 12 by order of a federal judge, also said that a federal police official on the scene had earlier warned D.C. police that the mass arrests would be improper.
The report revealed significant contradictions between what top city officials have said publicly about the controversial Sept. 27, 2002, arrests at Pershing Park and what they knew privately about the tightly held investigative findings.
FITreport10-24-2002.pdf
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:56 PM
matt@lefande.com
Risks disclosed in vests used by police
Thousands of police officers across the state and the country are wearing bulletproof vests that may not protect them from gunfire, and the manufacturer has notified scores of departments, including the Massachusetts State Police and numerous urban and suburban forces, that it has stopped selling the popular models.
The disclosure, by Second Chance Body Armor Inc., was made three months after a Pittsburgh-area police officer was seriously wounded in the stomach while wearing one of the vests. The notice from the company has alarmed the law enforcement community because the vests, lightweight and flexible, are widely used.
Second Chance, a Central Lake, Mich., company that bills itself as the country's largest body armor manufacturer and has sold "tens of thousands" of the vests, is now warning that they may "wear out faster than expected."
Last week, the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, which estimates that at least 2,500 officers in the state wear the vests, voted to ask Attorney General Thomas Reilly to demand that the company provide free replacements or refund the $900-per-vest purchase price.
The company, instead, has offered two layers of additional protective fabric as a remedy, for free, or replacement vests at a discounted price of $329.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2003/10/02/risks_disclosed_in_safety_vests_used_by_police/
posted by Matthew LeFande 4:04 PM
matt@lefande.com
Up out this camp and still Bling Bling...
Last Saturday, Alexander Bernard Harris, 33, of Pembroke Pines, and Todd Green, 28, of northwestern Miami-Dade County, were gunned down at Cutz, 5050 Biscayne Blvd.
On Friday evening, hundreds of friends and relatives gathered at northwest Miami-Dade's Grace Funeral Home to pay respects. Green, dressed in a simple gray suit, rested in a casket inside the viewing area. Harris' viewing was a little more extravagant.
The rising hip-hop mogul for Miami's Xela Entertainment Group sat inside his yellow Lamborghini, parked under a carport behind the funeral home. Mourners walked past, peering into the open, gull-wing, driver's-side door.
He was wearing blue jeans with several patches, a red San Francisco 49ers football jersey, a baseball cap with more patches, and trendy sunglasses.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/tom_fiedler/6760136.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 12:36 PM
matt@lefande.com
Court strikes down prisoners' DNA database
A 3-year-old law that requires federal prisoners and parolees to give blood samples for the FBI's DNA database was declared unconstitutional Thursday by a federal appeals court.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that requiring the blood samples amounts to an illegal invasion of privacy because they are taken without legal suspicion that the convicts were involved in other crimes.
The court said that is a violation of inmates' Fourth Amendment rights against illegal searches. The samples "constitute suspicionless searches with the objective of futhering law enforcement purposes," Judge Stephen Reinhardt said.
The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit is the most liberal and overturned federal appeals court in the country. The court's three-judge panels are known for several contentious rulings, including one that declared the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional in public schools and a decision last month that postponed California's recall election. That ruling was later overturned by a larger 9th Circuit panel.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/10/02/prisoners.dna.ap/index.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:48 AM
matt@lefande.com
Thieves Strip Car, Clothing From 4 Men in Annapolis
Four men who ran naked down a street in Annapolis yesterday morning said that robbers took their car, their cash and their clothes, according to Annapolis police.
After receiving a report about the nude men, police went to a neighborhood less than a half-mile east of the State House about 2:40 a.m. and said they found three men who were not wearing any clothing.
The fourth man was found about two hours later, police said, in the West Street area in the heart of downtown. He was using scrap cardboard for concealment, police said.
Police said the men, all young adults, gave them the following account:
They were driving in a 1974 Dodge automobile when they pulled over on a street near College Creek to ask for directions to the Eastport area of Annapolis.
Three men approached the car with handguns and an electronic stun gun. Shots were fired, but nobody was hit. However, each of the four men was shocked with the stun gun and ordered to surrender his wallet.
After handing over the wallets, the men were ordered to take off their clothing and to leave the area, which they did.
Police said that they found the clothing near Clay Street and College Creek Terrace but that the car, which was said to have Texas license plates, was still missing.
Three of the men were from Arnold and the fourth was from Severna Park, police said. None was reported injured.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38000-2003Oct3.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:18 AM
matt@lefande.com
Updated Collateral List Posted
I posted today a revised collateral list with all fines for DC moving and parking violations. Please download a new copy to update your list.
http://www.lefande.com/MPDForms/COLLATERAL.doc
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:12 AM
matt@lefande.com
Metro Arrest For Snacking Ruled Legal
A federal judge said this week that it was "foolish" for Metro Transit Police to handcuff a 12-year-old girl for eating a french fry on a subway platform, but he ruled that the transit system did not violate her constitutional rights.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan dismissed claims by Tracy Hedgepeth that Metro Transit Police Officer Jason Fazenbaker illegally searched her daughter's backpack and treated her unfairly when he arrested her Oct. 23, 2000, after watching her enter the Tenleytown-AU Station and pop a single french fry into her mouth.
Fazenbaker and other Transit Police officers were posted at the station as part of a week-long sting to catch students snacking and breaking other Metro rules. The station, near two high schools, had generated complaints for years from commuters upset about rowdy teenagers. On the afternoon of her arrest, Ansche Hedgepeth was headed home from junior high school.
But when they slapped metal handcuffs on Ansche, Metro Transit Police catapulted her into the national spotlight, found themselves fodder for talk radio hosts and triggered local debates on whether Metro had gone too far in its devotion to order.
At the time of the arrest, Metro police maintained that D.C. law allowed them to issue citations of up to $300 to adults caught eating in the Metro but required that minors be arrested and taken into custody. Police seized Ansche's jacket and backpack, removed her shoelaces and transported her to the District's juvenile processing center, where the crying girl was fingerprinted and held for three hours.
Attorneys representing Ansche said Metro Transit Police violated her Fifth Amendment guarantee to equal protection because they arrested her for something they would simply hand a citation to an adult for doing. They also charged that her Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure were violated.
Sullivan did not agree. While noting that the arrest seemed extreme, he wrote that once Transit Police had probable cause to arrest Ansche, she had "no fundamental right to freedom from physical restraint." The judge said although Ansche complained that Metro acted in "an unreasonable and disproportionate" way, the Supreme Court has ruled otherwise. In 2001, the court found that a Texas arrest for a seat belt violation was not so extraordinary as to violate the right to avoid unlawful search and seizure.
Still, Sullivan had harsh words for Metro. "Nonetheless, the court can hardly overlook the humiliating and demeaning impact of the arrest on Ms. Ansche Hedgepeth. Hopefully, the policymakers [at Metro] will rethink any other 'foolish' operating procedures before subjecting or continuing to subject unwary users of mass transportation to the indignity and horror suffered by the plaintiff."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36979-2003Oct2.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:10 AM
matt@lefande.com
Metropolitan Police Trunked Radio System
In addition to the 6 listed, there are 4 more sites for the new MPD UHF system:
Sites with callsign WPYM761
1 - 6001 GEORGIA AVE NW
2 - 4650 BENNING RD SE
3 - 441 4TH ST NW
4 - 2000 14TH ST NW
5 - 2700 MARTIN LUTHER KING AVE. SE
6 - 1700 RHODE ISLAND AVE NE
Sites with callsign WPYN833
7 - 3800 Reservoir Rd, NW (Georgetown Univ Hospital)
8 - 5255 Loughboro Rd, NW (Sibley Memorial Hospital)
9 - 4200 Connecticut Avenue, NW (Univ of District of Columbia, Bldg 41)
10 - 2150 Pennsylvania Ave, NW (Geo Washington Univ Hospital)
http://www.trunkedradio.net/
PoliceRadioSystem.doc
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:37 AM
matt@lefande.com
Armed Citizen of the Week.
A woman shot and killed a man who fell through her ceiling while she was getting dressed, and police said the intruder was a burglary suspect who was trying to evade arrest.
Police said they believe the shooting Tuesday was justified, and they will submit a report to the district attorney.
"I think anyone would agree you'd feel your life was in danger when a burglar falls through your ceiling when you're just getting out of the shower," police Lt. Tom Monahan said.
The intruder, a 31-year-old neighbor, had climbed into the crawl space to elude plainclothes police at his front door, police said.
Monahan said the woman bought the gun after her apartment was burglarized in April. Police suspect the man she shot committed that crime.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/09/17/national1439EDT0640.DTL
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:31 AM
matt@lefande.com
Stiffer Penalties Sought for Fake ID Sales
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) called yesterday for stiffer penalties for vendors of fake IDs, telling a congressional committee that the phony-document market in Adams Morgan is an example of an "issue that cries out for national homeland security leadership."
Norton had called for the hearing to address the possibility that such markets could attract terrorists as well as traditional clients: illegal immigrants seeking ersatz Social Security cards, green cards and driver's licenses to get jobs.
Norton said authorities may be "overly dependent on pre-9/11 remedies -- blanketing the area with agents, constant arrests and the like" -- and in need of new tools, such as stiffer jail sentences.
The hearing of the Select Committee on Homeland Security reflected how since Sept. 11, 2001, concern has grown about fake document sales such as those in Adams Morgan, the traditional center of the District's Latino community. Recent raids in the neighborhood have resulted in about 50 arrests and the seizure of more than 1,000 phony identification cards. But the market has always bounced back after similar crackdowns.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30884-2003Oct1.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:51 AM
matt@lefande.com
Report Says 10% In City Addicted
About 60,000 District residents, more than one in 10, are addicted to illicit drugs or alcohol, and substance abuse costs the city $1.2 billion each year in lost productivity, illness, premature death and crime and incarceration, a study released yesterday by Mayor Anthony A. Williams has found.
The two-year study, which sought to measure the scope and effects of substance abuse, also found that half of all people arrested for violent crimes in Washington test positive for narcotics.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30908-2003Oct1.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:48 AM
matt@lefande.com
What did you think the "W" stood for?
http://www.clanuak.com/whatever/
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:50 AM
matt@lefande.com
Police Schedule Shake-Up Continues
D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said yesterday that he is extending for two months a program that suspended officers' scheduling rules. In August, Ramsey suspended part of an agreement with the city's police union, eliminating a requirement that officers have 14 days' notice before their schedules are changed. With the rule suspended, local commanders can call officers to work immediately and change their schedules at any time.
Ramsey said yesterday that he was extending the program until Dec. 1. He said in a telephone interview that the program had been successful in fighting crime, and that in past years, October and November had been marked by high homicide totals.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25740-2003Sep30.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:42 AM
matt@lefande.com
