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
Transit Officer's Killer Gets Life
Standing in a courtroom packed with police officers, Walter O. Johnson was sentenced yesterday to spend the rest of his life in prison for the slaying of Metro Transit Officer Marlon F. Morales.
Already facing a mandatory life sentence, Johnson was given the maximum possible terms on practically all of the other charges that a jury convicted him of last spring in the June 2001 killing at the U Street/Cardozo Metro station in Northwest Washington -- as if to underscore the court's contempt for his crimes.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Ann O'Regan Keary, looking out on an overflowing courtroom, told Johnson that society should be shielded from him for the rest of his life and that it would be as a result of the law that made murder of a law enforcement officer a life offense.
"No other family should have to suffer as this family has," Keary told Johnson.
When asked by Keary if he had anything to say, Johnson replied, "Nah." He has denied killing Morales and is appealing the conviction.
Sitting in the first row were Morales's widow, Jennifer, and his brother, Omar. Each had stood before the judge to describe the toll the shooting, on June 10, 2001, had taken on their family.
The night her husband was shot, left clinging to life on the Metro station's floor, officers came to her door to give her the grave news, Jennifer Morales said. It was the night her life was forever changed.
At first, the prognosis was good, she said. At the hospital, he squeezed her hand three times, which meant, "I love you." But she sensed that he was not improving. "They kept telling me he was going to be all right, but the look on his face, I knew he wasn't.
Three days later, he died, the second Metro officer killed since the force was created in 1976.
Johnson, a convicted bank robber who had been paroled a month earlier, was arrested in Philadelphia a day after Morales died. He had been stopped for a routine traffic violation and was found to be carrying Morales's gun.
The gun was stolen when Morales was shot, but Johnson claimed that he bought it on the street in Philadelphia. Indeed, Johnson's defense at his trial last spring was that he was not in Washington the night of the shooting and that he was the victim of mistaken identity.
But the first government witness undercut Johnson's contention that he was not in the District. The station manager working that night testified that he confronted Johnson over the man's failure to pay the fare as he exited the station. The manager testified that he and Johnson spoke for several minutes, face-to-face, before Morales stepped in.
Morales, 32, figured that he could sort out the matter quickly, but when he asked to see Johnson's identification, the man instead drew a gun.
Already wanted for failing to show up for a parole meeting, Johnson had been involved in a shooting days earlier in Philadelphia and the gun he was carrying was used in that shooting, prosecutors said.
A check of his identification would have likely revealed the warrant and a search would have probably turned up the gun, each of which would have been enough to send him back to prison. So he shot Morales in the head, stole his gun and ammunition and fled, eventually making his way back to Philadelphia, prosecutors said.
It was a fatal shooting that prosecutors say may have averted another fatal shooting.
In court papers filed this week, prosecutors June M. Jeffries and David J. Gorman set out what they believe was Johnson's reason for coming to Washington that day three years ago. They said he was coming to seek revenge against a Northwest Washington woman who turned him in for a 1989 bank robbery in the Philadelphia area -- leading to his incarceration.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29047-2004Jul30.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 12:31 PM
matt@lefande.com
Police in Spain Tune Up Bank Robber Fleeing on Motorcycle
Security forces in Alicante Spain were on red alert yesterday as a young man threatened to blow up a branch of the Banco Popular in a residential area of the city. The bank seige lasted for over 12 hours.
The man entered the bank at 9.30 a.m. and held hostage bank employees and clients for twelve hours, while the police evacuated 176 families from flats around the bank and cordened off the area. The man's father travelled down from Madrid and tried to pursuade his son to free the hostages and to surrender to police, but the man continued with his threats to set off a hand grenade if police did not give him a motorbike and a gram of heroin.
Finally he was given a motorbike and tried to escape, but a police car crashed into the bike and overpowered him. He was taken to hospital last night and is reported to be in a serious condition.
http://www.informativos.telecinco.es/dn_6278.htm
Video of the escape cut short (3.5Mb)
http://www.lefande.com/weblog/spainbank.wmv
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:02 AM
matt@lefande.com
Cops mistake hibiscus for pot, raid house
Landscape contractor Blair Davis was in his northwest Harris County home around 2 p.m. Tuesday when there was a knock at his door.
Davis said he hadn't even gotten his hand on the doorknob when it flew open and he was looking at the barrel of a pistol.
Behind the gun were about 10 members of the Harris County Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force, who burst into the home, guns drawn, and began shouting at him to get down on the floor.
There on the floor, Davis said, it took a while to figure out that what had caused the swarm of lawmen to descend upon him was the hibiscus in his front yard.
That's right, hibiscus.
The foliage of the Texas Star hibiscus, a native plant that's growing in popularity, vaguely resembles that of marijuana.
But: "It's got white buds on it," Davis said. "Hello."
Davis had several of the plants in his yard, where he grows stock for his business.
"They were in containers," he said: "I don't want to say potted plants."
Evidently, some well-meaning but horticulturally challenged citizen turned Davis in. Davis said the team of narcotics officers combed his house for about an hour, at one point discussing whether red and gold bamboo growing in his window might be marijuana. They also asked what he did with the watermelons and cantaloupes growing in his back yard.
"What would I do with them?" Davis said.
Finally the officers gave up and left, leaving Davis only a "citizen's information card" with "closed-report" written on it.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2707648
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:36 AM
matt@lefande.com
NYPD will reinstate Sikhs
Two officers who lost their jobs on the police force for refusing to remove their turbans and trim their beards will return to work, a milestone victory for the Sikh community.
The decision to allow Sikh traffic agents Jasjit Singh Jaggi, 36, of Richmond Hill and Amric Singh Rathour, 27, of Ozone Park to return to the Police Department with their religiously mandated turbans and beards is scheduled to be announced today by the Sikh Coalition, a nonprofit civil rights group based in Manhattan.
The New York City Commission on Human Rights, where Jaggi had filed a complaint after he was forced to resign because police banned him from wearing his turban, found in his favor in a June decision. In light of that, police have also agreed to Rathour's return.
After being fired, Rathour had filed suit in federal court in Manhattan. A settlement in the suit is pending.
"I couldn't believe what the city that is a melting pot for the world was doing to me," Rathour said. "It just emotionally destroyed me."
Unlike police dress codes in Canada and London that allow turbans under certain guidelines, the New York City Police Department's code mandates that all traffic agents must wear a white vinyl hat and cover any religious headwear. It also requires that beards be no longer than one millimeter.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/nyc-nysikh293909739jul29,0,4259964.story?coll=sfla-newsnation-front
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:34 AM
matt@lefande.com
Senior Police Posts Shuffled After 4 Leave
Four senior police commanders with more than 100 years of combined experience have retired in the past month, creating vacancies at the top of the department that Chief Charles H. Ramsey has scrambled to fill through transfers and promotions.
Ramsey lost two top-ranking commanders: assistant chiefs Alfred J. Broadbent and Ronald Monroe, both 25-year veterans who had climbed the ranks.
Broadbent was in charge of special services, which includes most of the department's detectives and many of its specialized units. Monroe was a regional commander who oversaw the 2nd, 3rd and 4th districts.
Broadbent will become vice president of security at Amtrak. Monroe said he has not decided what he will do next.
Abraham Parks, a 31-year veteran, announced he was leaving his job as the 7th District commander to work with his son in a private business. Cmdr. Jeffrey Moore, a 30-year veteran in charge of the 2nd District, said he was retiring. He, too, said he hasn't decided what he will do in retirement.
While all the commanders said they were retiring so they could try something new, Parks said he was leaving also because he felt that Ramsey micromanaged the department and did not give commanders sufficient authority.
He pointed to what he called onerous, hours-long daily crime-trend meetings held at police headquarters. Often, commanders do not start working in their districts until after lunch, he said.
"It's difficult [when you don't] have hands-on quality time at your districts until after 1 p.m.," Parks said.
Ramsey "doesn't trust us and has made comments that he doesn't trust the captains and lieutenants to do the right things," Parks added.
Parks said morale among the rank-and-file and commanders was at its lowest since the late 1980s and early 1990s, a time of budget cuts and a high murder rate. Union officials also have cited low morale.
A half-dozen senior commanders, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they fear retaliation for criticizing police management, said they believe the department is top heavy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21382-2004Jul28.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:20 AM
matt@lefande.com
Met hunt for first black officer
A police search of a different kind has been started by the Met as they try to track down the identity of a man they believe was their first black officer.
The man is wearing a uniform in a photograph taken on 3 September 1910.
He was attending an event to celebrate the first Chislehurst fire engine, in south-east London.
The hunt for information is part of the 10th anniversary of the Black Police Association, the Met's 175th anniversary and Black History Month.
Commander Steve Allen, head of the Met's Diversity Directorate, said the photograph provided a "glimpse" of the force's history.
He said: "He must have been one of the first black police officers in the Met and, with that, must have found an environment very different to that of today.
"He was one of the pioneers in being a black role model in the capital's criminal justice system."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3924023.stm
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:46 AM
matt@lefande.com
Virus purporting bin Laden suicide hits Web
A virus purporting to show images of Osama bin Laden's suicide popped up on the Internet Friday, designed to entice recipients to open a file that unleashes malicious software code, security experts said.
The virus was attached to a message that was posted on over 30,000 usenet newsgroups and is not being spread via e-mail, said Web security vendor Sophos.
Chris Kraft, senior security analyst at Sophos, said the message and virus was designed to lure unsuspecting readers into opening a file, similar to the Anna Kournikova virus that enticed readers to open a file that unleashed malicious software code.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/07/24/virus.binladen.reut/index.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:25 AM
matt@lefande.com
Car-theft sprees may raise rates
The recent spate of juvenile car thefts in the District has raised concerns that already high car-insurance rates could go up, insurance industry officials said last week.
The average annual auto premium in the District is $1,011, the third highest in the nation behind New Jersey at $1,027 and New York at $1,014.
Higher insurance rates "will be reflected in areas most affected by auto theft," said Carolyn Gorman, vice president of the Insurance Information Institute. "People living in areas that don't have high auto-theft rates won't see higher rates."
Auto theft drains $8.5 billion from the insurance industry, but increasing police resources would translate to lower premiums, Ms. Gorman said. Auto-insurance rates in the District are high because the "city is full of lawyers — people who like to sue," she said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20040724-105245-3559r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:11 PM
matt@lefande.com
Berger rejected four plans to kill or capture bin Laden
President Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger, rejected four plans to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, worrying once that if the plans failed and al Qaeda launched a counterattack, "we're blamed."
According to the September 11 commission's 567-page report, released Thursday, Mr. Berger was told in June 1999 that U.S. intelligence agents were confident about bin Laden's presence in a terrorist training camp called Tarnak Farms in Afghanistan.
Mr. Berger's "hand-written notes on the meeting paper," the report says, showed that Mr. Berger was worried about injuring or killing civilians located near the camp.
Additionally, "If [bin Laden] responds" to the attack, "we're blamed," Mr. Berger wrote.
According to the report, the first plan of action against bin Laden presented to Mr. Berger was a briefing by CIA Director George J. Tenet on May 1, 1998. Mr. Berger took no action, the report says, because he was "focused most" on legal questions.
"[Mr. Berger] worried that the hard evidence against bin Laden was still skimpy and that there was a danger of snatching him and bringing him to the United States only to see him acquitted," the report says.
Mr. Clarke asked Mr. Berger: "Should we pre-empt by attacking [bin Laden's] facilities?"
Mr. Berger decided against it, but later that year, Mr. Clinton ordered an attack on a chemical plant in Sudan that was suspected of providing bin Laden with dangerous weapons material.
Another opportunity to strike at bin Laden occurred on Dec. 4, 1999, according to the report, when Mr. Clarke suggested carrying out an attack on an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in the last week of the year.
"In the margin next to Clarke's suggestion," the report states in a footnote, "Berger wrote, 'no.' "
Finally, in August of 2000, five months before Mr. Clinton left office, Mr. Berger was told that aerial surveillance from a Predator drone suggested another opportunity to kill bin Laden.
Mr. Clarke told Mr. Berger that the imagery captured by the Predator was "truly astounding," and expressed confidence that more missions could find bin Laden. Mr. Berger, however, "worried that a Predator might be shot down, and warned Clarke that such an event would be a 'bonanza' for bin Laden and the Taliban."
"In the memo's margin," the report states, "Berger wrote that before considering action, 'I will want more than verified location: we will need, at least, data on pattern of movements to provide some assurance he will remain in place.' "
The commission's report also notes a speech that Mr. Clinton gave to the Long Island Association on Feb. 15, 2002, in which — in the answer to a query from a member of the audience — he said that Sudan offered to turn over bin Laden to U.S. custody, but Mr. Clinton refused because "there was no indictment" in hand.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040723-111413-2905r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:26 PM
matt@lefande.com
GALLS Inc. raided by Federal Agents
Agents executed search warrants today at Galls Incorporated on Palumbo Drive and a warehouse on Russell Cave Road in Lexington Kentucky.
Galls is a national supplier of police and emergency services equipment.
Among the agencies involved in the investigation are the Homeland Security Cabinet and the Department of Defense.
Employees were told to go home for the day and it's expected officials will be searching the locations for some time.
http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=2068903
posted by Matthew LeFande 12:33 PM
matt@lefande.com
Terror in the Skies, Again?
In an article By Annie Jacobsen of the Women's Wall Street Journal, she details her personal experience on a NorthWest Airlines flight between Detroit and Los Angeles on June 29, 2004.
The article raises many questions about the adequacy of security procedures by the airline crews, staff, screeners and government agencies tasked with preventing another 9/11 from happening.
"Suddenly, seven of the men stood up -- in unison -- and walked to the front and back lavatories. One by one, they went into the two lavatories, each spending about four minutes inside. Right in front of us, two men stood up against the emergency exit door, waiting for the lavatory to become available. The men spoke in Arabic among themselves and to the man in the yellow shirt sitting nearby. One of the men took his camera into the lavatory. Another took his cell phone. Again, no one approached the men. Not one of the flight attendants asked them to sit down."
"...The last man came out of the bathroom, and as he passed the man in the yellow shirt he ran his forefinger across his neck and mouthed the word 'No.' "
The 14 men on the flight later identified themselves as musicians. They had no American arrest records and were not on any watch lists.
They did, however, fly to California on one way tickets. All 14 of them flew on one-way tickets. Their return flight to New York? Yes, they flew on one-way tickets back, too.
After deboarding the flight, Mrs. Jacobsen and her family saw a large number of official-looking "men in dark suits" waiting at the gate. The men turned out to be LAPD, FBI, TSA, and Federal Air Marshall personnel. The fourteen suspicious men from the plane were ushered away quickly.
The Jacobsen family willingly interviewed with the government officials, detailing the activity they'd seen. They witnessed one official holding "14 Syrian passports" in the location they were being interviewed.
As though the suspiscious activity wasn't disturbing enough, the response of personnel on the plane - or lack of response - is moreso. And that lack of response, how does that happen after the events of 9-11?
It's because it's illegal to question large groups of minority persons behaving in a peculiar way in an airport or on a flight. It's discriminitory. According to the Chairman of the independant 9-11 Commission, John Lehman, "...it was the policy (before 9/11) and I believe remains the policy today to fine airlines if they have more than two young Arab males in secondary questioning because that's discriminatory."
http://www.terroranalysis.com/story/66331.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:54 AM
matt@lefande.com
Cops rip judge: 'It's giving an open door to terrorists'
NYPD cops blasted a federal judge's ruling aimed at stopping them from searching demonstrators' bags outside the Republican National Convention, saying the decision gives "an open door to terrorists."
Manhattan Federal Judge Robert Sweet's decision - made public yesterday - prohibits blanket searches of bulky bags and backpacks in the absence of a "specific threat."
"In this day and age of terrorism, it's an extremely dangerous step in a very dangerous time in New York City," said an outraged Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association.
"It's giving an open door to terrorists, and further handcuffing police at a time that they should be given a little bit more latitude," Palladino said. He said he plans to urge Mayor Bloomberg to appeal the ruling.
Sweet's decision also limits how many streets the NYPD can close around Madison Square Garden, and prohibits cops from penning protesters behind metal barricades.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/213954p-184246c.html?session=299
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:25 AM
matt@lefande.com
Decorated Officer Struck and Killed in Cruiser
A three-time officer of the year with the Maryland Transportation Authority police was killed yesterday morning when a pickup truck smashed into his patrol car on the shoulder of Route 50, police said.
Officer Duke G. Aaron III, who won the award in 2001, 2002 and 2003 for his work patrolling the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, suffered massive head injuries and internal trauma in the crash, which occurred about 10 a.m. in Anne Arundel County.
Aaron, 29, was taken by helicopter to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where he died in the early afternoon, police spokeswoman Catherine Leahan said.
"This is a major, huge blow for us," Leahan said.
The driver who allegedly hit Aaron's car also was taken to the hospital with injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening, she said.
Police said that Aaron had issued a citation to a driver just before the crash. After that driver drove on, Aaron returned to his parked cruiser to complete paperwork on the citation.
As he sat on the right shoulder of the westbound lanes, police said, a 1998 Dodge Ram pickup truck ran into the back of the unmarked cruiser at high speed.
Police sources familiar with the case identified the pickup's driver as Albert Gene Antonelli, 32, of Queenstown, Md.
Antonelli was driving on a suspended license, police sources said.
He was charged with traffic violations last year that included driving on a suspended registration. He failed to appear in court on that charge and several others, including failing to display a registration card and making an improper turn, court records show.
Antonelli pleaded guilty to negligent driving in 2002. He also has been arrested on drug possession charges several times, court records show. He pleaded guilty to possessing drug paraphernalia in 2002 and was sentenced to probation, court records show.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A470-2004Jul20.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:09 AM
matt@lefande.com
Video of Trooper grabbing bridge jumper
It was a dramatic rescue in Green Bay as a woman was literally pulled from the brink of death.
Trooper Les Boldt of the Wisconsin State Patrol chased a car driving at a high rate of speed around 10 o'clock Monday morning. The 36-year-old woman wouldn't stop until she was on top of the Leo Frigo Bridge on Interstate-43.
She got out of her car, walked to the steel railing, and jumped. At the same time, Trooper Boldt was jumping out of his squad car, running to the railing, and was able to catch the woman by the arm as she went over the edge.
Despite her efforts to break free, Boldt managed to pull her to safety as other law enforcement officers arrived to assist him.
http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=2059755&nav=51s7Owrz
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:43 AM
matt@lefande.com
Advocates defend open-carry law
Virginians who exercise their right to carry guns in public have been criticized — even ridiculed — in recent days by critics on the both sides of the Potomac. But many gun rights advocates, state lawmakers and residents point out that it's much safer to shop, drive or walk along a street in Virginia than in the District, where handguns are banned and police just declared a "crime emergency."
It's always been legal to carry handguns openly in Virginia, but recent sightings of gun owners displaying holstered handguns has some people spooked. More than 20 states have open-carry laws; it is illegal to carry handguns openly in Maryland and the District.
Virginia state Sen. Janet D. Howell says she was surprised when a D.C. resident sent her an e-mail saying he won't be crossing the Potomac into Virginia anymore because of the open-carry law.
"He feels that the District of Columbia is a safer place to be," said Mrs. Howell, Fairfax County Democrat.
Crime statistics, however, indicate that Fairfax County is much safer than the District, even though the city has a fraction of the population of its southern neighbor.
From January through April this year, Fairfax County had four homicides while the District had 64. There were 189 robberies in Fairfax County compared with 1,214 robberies in the District, and 18 rapes compared with 100 rapes in the city.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20040719-102254-3826r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:39 AM
matt@lefande.com
NYC rushes to charge retired cops with gun charges before HR 218 takes effect
A retired New York police officer shot and killed one of five assailants who forced his Cadillac to a halt during a carjacking attempt Sunday. The retired officer was charged with illegal possession of a handgun after shooting the assailant with a .40-caliber pistol he drew from a holster, city police spokesman Lt. Derek Glenn said. Police withheld the retired officer's name, citing an ongoing investigation. Glenn said the officer was self-employed as a bodyguard, specializing in protection for company executives, and was licensed to carry a gun in New York but not New Jersey.The shooting happened on a bridge on Haynes Avenue, a local road that feeds into Routes 1 and 9. The retired officer was on his way to pick up a client at Newark Liberty International Airport about 12:45 p.m., driving west on the bridge when the assailants, riding in a sport-utility vehicle, cut off his car, Glenn said. Two gunmen then exited the SUV and ordered the man out of his Cadillac, while a third jumped into the vehicle's driver seat and began to pull away. The retired officer then drew his gun and fired five times after one of the gunmen took aim at him. The gunman was struck in the chest and later pronounced dead at the scene. Police were still trying to identify the dead man Sunday night, Glenn said. A small-caliber handgun was recovered at the scene.
http://www.wnbc.com/news/3545082/detail.html?treets=ny&tid=2654634053813&tml=ny_7am&tmi=ny_7am_3158_06000207192004&ts=H
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:33 AM
matt@lefande.com
Passengers give up seats so soldiers can go first-class
In her 15 years as an American Airlines flight attendant, DeVilla Evans has seen her share of "blood baths" over premium seats.
So when a businessman on a recent flight from Atlanta to Chicago exchanged his first-class seat for a soldier's coach ticket, the 39-year-old from Ft. Worth, Texas, got a little emotional.
The tears really flowed when the gesture prompted another half-dozen first-class passengers to do the same with other troops heading home from Iraq for a two-week break.
"I cried during most of the boarding," Evans said Thursday of the June 29 incident. "I was so privileged to be flying with these two groups of unselfish people. Here you have these kids who are putting their lives on the line, protecting our freedom, and here are these people who gave up these seats that are usually fought over. You really have to have a large heart to do something like that."
The businessman who created the goodwill domino effect noticed a dozen soldiers waiting for Flight 866 and gave up his ritzy seat at the boarding gate. Other first-class fliers noticed the lucky soldier sitting in the plane along with two other military men who were already there and asked to swap seats with other troops further back in the aircraft, Evans said.
Flight attendants were able to upgrade the rest, so all of the soldiers were accommodated in the coveted 14-seat section of the plane, where they mostly talked and requested soda from Evans and her colleagues, Lorrie Gammon and Candi Spradlin.
The soldiers autographed old Iraqi currency, which bears images of former dictator Saddam Hussein, for the flight crew and the passengers who decided they would let someone else be king for a day.
"We've got great passengers," airline spokeswoman Jacquie Young said. "It's wonderful that they would give up their seats."
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-flight16.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:09 AM
matt@lefande.com
Administration Urges New Pay System for Law Enforcement Officers
The government's patchwork approach to paying federal law enforcement officers -- shaped by law, rules and court decisions since the 1940s -- should be replaced with a framework that recognizes the more complex challenges facing officers and agencies in the new century, the Bush administration recommends in a report scheduled for release today.
The 60-page report describes "considerable and sometimes confusing differences" in pay and retirement benefits provided officers across the government.
"Disparities between agencies that have pay flexibilities and those that do not can harm morale, create staffing disruptions and increase costs unnecessarily," Kay Coles James, director of the Office of Personnel Management, warns in the report's introduction.
The report calls on Congress to grant broad authority to the OPM to establish a government-wide framework for pay and related benefits in consultation with law enforcement agencies and with the concurrence of the attorney general. Agencies would be free to tailor pay practices under the framework, which would be cast as regulation rather than law.
Pressure to overhaul law enforcement pay and retirement programs has been building for several years and increased after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
Associations representing officers, criminal investigators and FBI agents have petitioned Congress for changes, with some contending that federal pay scales make it difficult for agents to make ends meet in high-cost cities.
The report addresses three areas -- basic pay, retirement benefits and premium pay (overtime, Sunday and holiday pay, night differential, availability pay and other special rates) -- that cover about 106,000 federal law enforcement officers.
It outlines numerous problems, including a narrow and outdated statutory definition of law enforcement, a 50-year-old basic pay system (the General Schedule) that does not reflect the dynamics of today's law enforcement work, a mandatory retirement age of 57 that sometimes deprives the government of experienced hands, and piecemeal legislation and court rulings that have created "unwarranted differences" in pension benefits.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53658-2004Jul15.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:06 AM
matt@lefande.com
Guns Worn In Open Legal, But Alarm Va.
On July 2, Fairfax County police received a 911 call from a Champps restaurant in Reston. Six men are seated at a table, the caller said. They're all armed.
Dispatchers quickly sent four officers to the scene. The officers were "extremely polite" and were hoping that some of the men were in law enforcement, said Sgt. Richard Perez, a spokesman for the police department. None was.
The men told the officers "they were just exercising their rights as citizens of the commonwealth," Perez said.
Turns out, packing a pistol in public is perfectly legal in Virginia. And three times in the last month, including at Champps on Sunset Hills Road, residents have been spotted out and about in the county, with guns strapped to their hips, exercising that right.
In the first episode, at a Starbucks, Fairfax police wrongly confiscated weapons from two college students and charged them with a misdemeanor. Police realized their mistake, returned the guns and tore up the charges the next day. Police commanders have since issued a reminder to officers that "open carry" is the law of the land in the Old Dominion.
In Virginia, as in many states, carrying a concealed weapon requires a permit, issued by a local court. But no permit is required to simply wield a gun in the open, a right reinforced by a state law that took effect July 1. Not so in the District and Maryland, unless you're a police or federal officer.
The first incident, at a Starbucks on Leesburg Pike near Tysons Corner, might have inspired other gun owners to carry openly. It began shortly before 10 p.m. June 14, Perez said, with a complaint from a citizen. Police arrived to find a 19-year-old man carrying a .22-caliber pistol and a 21-year-old man with a 9mm pistol.
Perez said an officer spoke with the men, then took their guns and charged them with possession of a firearm in a public place. Virginia law 18.2-287.4 expressly prohibits "carrying loaded firearms in public areas."
But the second paragraph of the law defines firearms only as any semiautomatic weapon that holds more than 20 rounds or a shotgun that holds more than seven rounds -- assault rifles, mostly, Van Cleave said. Regular six-shooters or pistols with nine- or 10-shot magazines are not "firearms" under this Virginia law.
The day after the arrest, the officer consulted with a county prosecutor and determined that "he had erred," Perez said. He summoned the two men to the McLean District station, returned their weapons and dropped the charges.
Van Cleave said the gun owners might have been out celebrating a law that took effect July 1. Virginia statute 15.2-915 now completely prohibits any locality from enacting any regulations on gun ownership, carrying, storage or purchase, except for rules related to the workforce. Alexandria, for example, had an ordinance prohibiting openly carrying guns. It is now invalid, Van Cleave said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50416-2004Jul14_2.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:17 AM
matt@lefande.com
Bill would limit speed cameras
D.C. Council member Carol Schwartz yesterday introduced a bill that would limit the use of speed cameras to areas with heavy pedestrian traffic, effectively barring them from the highways, where they have raked in the most money.
"There are a lot of cameras in this city that are not about safety, they are about revenue," said Mrs. Schwartz.
"[T]oo many of these cameras are placed in areas without high volumes of pedestrian traffic, such as the Anacostia Freeway, the Third Street Tunnel and the 2800 block of New York Avenue [NE]," she said.
The Washington Times reported last month that 2800 block of New York Avenue NE in May was the cameras' most lucrative site. The outbound roadway — a six-lane, divided highway between two service roads — accounted for 10,868 speed-camera citations, more than 17 percent of the tickets issued that month, according to Metropolitan Police statistics.
At the automated traffic-enforcement program's minimum fine — $30 — the New York Avenue zone generated at least $326,040 in May.
Also in May, cameras on a stretch of the Anacostia Freeway south of Pennsylvania Avenue generated 7,045 citations, with fines totaling at least $211,350, and those at the freeway's 8.2-mile marker generated 6,783 citations and fines totaling at least $203,490, according to police statistics.
The freeway, like outbound New York Avenue, has no pedestrian crosswalks and does not intersect other city streets.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20040713-095520-3834r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:34 AM
matt@lefande.com
Senate Report on Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq
Iraqi support for terrorism
From p. 315-317, we get a review of the failed attempts by the Mukhabarat to perpetrate terrorist attacks against US targets during the first Gulf War as well as assassination attempts carried out against Iraqi dissidents and opposition leaders living in Jordan and Iraqi Kurdistan well into the mid-1990s. Of particular interest is p. 316's summary of the Iraqi plans to bomb Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague from 1998-2003, which would tend to rather strongly contradict Richard Clarke's claim that Iraq had not been involved in anti-US terrorism since the failed 1993 plot to assassinate the first President Bush in Kuwait. Page 317 also covers attempts by the Mukhabarat to go after US installations in Turkey and Azerbaijan in late 2002.
From p. 317-19, we get a recap of a number of known Iraqi proxies ranging from the PLF, 15 May, MEK, Abu Nidal Organization, and the PFLP-GC, though they blacked out the reports concerning Iraq assisting the PFLP-GC in its attacks on Israel during the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada.
Hamas rebuffed the Iraqi overtures to attack the US because they already had their hands full with fighting Israel, whereas Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad were ordered to decline Saddam's overtures at the behest of their Iranian backers. All the same, had the Iraqi efforts in this regard been successful Saddam Hussein would have put together quite a formidable terrorist coalition to aim at the US.
Al-Qaeda
The report, starting on p. 322, goes through what we already know concerning the poor intelligence that the CIA had on both the Iraqi and al-Qaeda leadership as well as a general summary of the ideological differences between the two, including a number of human intelligence reports noting Saddam Hussein's suppression of Wahhabism inside Iraq and his initial efforts to prevent Iraqi youth from joining al-Qaeda. On the al-Qaeda side of the equation, we have contradictory reporting from al-Qaeda leaders now in US custody, with some claiming that the organization hated Saddam Hussein and others claiming that they were more than happy to work with him to fight the United States.
The p. 324-325 recounting of Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's interrogations on the subject of an alliance between Iraq and al-Qaeda also completely contradicts what various opponents of administration policy have attempted to caricature to as far as the press is concerned, as neither man denied the existence of a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda or even stated that the two were blood enemies.
Abu Zubaydah told the CIA that Abu Musab Zarqawi and others were known to have good relationships with the Mukhabarat, but that bin Laden would never ally with the Iraqi regime in the sense of something akin to what Abu Nidal had done in order to retain his operational independence, which tracks exactly with what is stated in the Feith memo.
The next section from p. 326 to 329 deals specifically with the meetings between the Iraqi government and al-Qaeda officials as far back as Sudan up into the late 1990s in Afghanistan and the caveats about taking the claims from governments and exile groups opposed to the Iraqi regime at face value are very much to be noted, a far cry from the whole "Chalabi suckered us all" canard that's been floating around the press. The training aspects of the report, beginning on p. 329, notes that there is indeed evidence that Iraq trained al-Qaeda fighters, and while the sources of the reporting concerning Iraq having provided assistance to Project al-Zabadi (al-Qaeda's WMD program) are indeed of varying credibility (of the 12, 2 reports were based on hearsay, 4 were merely accusations, and but the other 6 reports seem to have held up under scrutiny despite all the caveats), there are more than enough of them to have caused considerable worry within the intelligence community. They also blacked out the section that deals specifically with the al-Shifa plant in Sudan on p. 331.
On the issue of Salman Pak from p. 332-333, there appears to be a good deal of smoke there with respect to reports about al-Qaeda fighters being trained there alongside other Iraqi-sponsored terrorist groups since at least 1999, but the CIA censored the final analysis of what exactly was going on at Salman Pak.
Some of the safe haven stuff from p. 334-338 was censored, but it appears that Saddam Hussein issued a standing offer of safehaven for bin Laden in 1999, possibly in response to bin Laden's attempt to see how open the Iraqi government would to such an offer in the summer of 1998 in case he had to flee Afghanistan in the wake of the embassy bombings.
The Iraqi envoy in Afghanistan in 1999 was of course Farouk Hijazi and it seems that he was not authorized to discuss safe haven (which would tend to contradict some reports claiming that bin Laden turned down his offer of it) but instead turned the discussion back to areas of mutual cooperation. All of the stuff on Ansar al-Islam is censored, though the individual referenced on p. 336 who was identified by Ansar al-Islam detainees captured by the PUK as a Mukhabarat associate is none other than Abu Wael. It also appears, judging from the wording of the CIA report on p. 337, that the Mukhabarat could have sought to oppose the al-Qaeda presence in northern Iraq in some fashion but apparently chose not to.
The information on Zarqawi's stay in Baghdad and medical treatment at the Olympic Hospital is almost completely censored, as is the size and composition of his entourage. The idea that Zarqawi expanded his organization inside Iraq between 2002 and 2003 almost certainly suggests the tacit acquiescence from the Iraqi security forces, whom as earlier reports have noted were quite ruthless in hunting down and eliminating Iraqi Wahhabis believed to constitute a threat to the regime. That last sentence on p. 337 is partially censored, but it's talking about the nature of the support Zarqawi and his entourage would have received from the Iraqi government during his stay in Baghdad, probably a reference to reports that Zarqawi received weaponry from the Mukhabarat during that period.
On the issue of the operational cooperation between Iraq and al-Qaeda that starts on p. 338, the CIA notes that it refrained from asserting such a link between the two entities not because they had anything substantively refuting such a link, but rather because of the nature of poor intelligence on the Iraqi regime.
However, one important element can be found in the middle of p. 339 that is well worth reading, which states that there are provocative elements in the 1993 WTC bombing, the 9/11 attacks, and the Foley assassination which appear to suggest Iraqi involvement in any one of them as well as evidence that runs counter to these beliefs.
Unfortunately, the CIA chose to classify most of the commission's conclusions with respect to the nature of Iraqi ties to al-Qaeda are classified, leaving us pretty much in the same position that we were going into all of this, abeit with some new information. However, the report doesn't end there, as p. 350-356 deal with how the intelligence community's HUMINT assets were hampered as far as understanding the nature of Iraqi ties to al-Qaeda, forcing them to rely in many cases on detainee information and foreign government information for their HUMINT understanding of the relationship.
http://intelligence.senate.gov/iraqreport2.pdf
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:51 AM
matt@lefande.com
Police test hi-tech zapper that could end car chases
A hi-tech device that can bring speeding cars to a halt at the flick of a switch is set to become the latest weapon in the fight against crime.
Police forces in Britain and the US have ordered tests of the new system that delivers a blast of radio waves powerful enough to knock out vital engine electronics, making the targeted vehicle stall and slowly come to a stop.
David Giri, who left his position as a physics professor at the University of California in Berkeley to set up a company called ProTech, is developing a radio wave vehicle-stopping system for the US marine corps and the Los Angeles police department.
Tomorrow, at the Euroem 2004 science conference in Germany, Dr Giri will describe recent trials of the device. The tests proved that the system could stop vehicles from up to 50 metres away.
The bulk of the device is designed to fit in a car boot and consists of a battery and a bank of capacitors that can store an electrical charge. Flicking a switch on the dashboard sends a burst of electricity into an antenna mounted on the roof of the car. The antenna then produces a narrow beam of intense radio waves that is directed at the vehicle ahead.
When the radio waves hit the targeted car, they induce surges of electricity in its electronics, upsetting the fuel injection and engine firing signals. "It works on most cars built in the past 10 years, because their engines are controlled by computer chips," said Dr Giri. "If we can disrupt the computer, we can stop the car." A prototype is due to be ready by next summer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,1259138,00.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:59 AM
matt@lefande.com
Entire police department fired
A federal appeals court affirmed the decision of a lower federal court last Friday in ruling that the village of Potsdam, Ohio had the right to terminate their police force after returning federal grant money that supported it in 2000.
The suit was filed by then village police chief Robert Chaney along with eight former village police officers.
The nine officers were terminated in 2000 after village council returned $300,000 worth federal grant money for the village's police agency.
Chaney had applied and received the funds after he said he would merge police departments within Union Township and the village of Laura. The merger never occurred.
Potsdam is less than one square mile in size and has a population of about 300 people.
A Miami County Common Pleas Court judge ruled earlier this year in favor of council's termination in a similar lawsuit filed by the nine officers.
That lawsuit had similar claims as the federal lawsuit, including breach of contract.
http://www.tcnewsnet.com/main.asp?SectionID=14&SubSectionID=231&ArticleID=1363
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:24 PM
matt@lefande.com
Former D.C. Officer Faces Drug Charges
With the blue lights of his patrol car flashing, D.C. police officer Shawn P. Verbeke pulled over a car at 22nd and P streets NW. In full uniform, he approached the driver, clipboard in hand.
But on that clipboard, federal law enforcement sources said, was a bag of drugs. The so-called traffic stop was actually a drug deal, and Verbeke sold the driver almost $400 worth of methamphetamine, they said.
The drug deal is one of many alleged in charges filed against Verbeke in federal court in Alexandria. Verbeke, 30, left the D.C. police in 2002. But while he was an officer, prosecutors said during a detention hearing yesterday, Verbeke used and sold drugs on and off duty, flashing his badge as he shook down dealers at nightclubs in the District and distributing ecstasy pills at parties in Northern Virginia.
During the hearing, a federal judge ordered Verbeke, who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to distribute ecstasy and methamphetamine, held without bond until his Sept. 15 trial. Verbeke, a former Marine who also worked as a U.S. Capitol Police officer, was arrested June 8 in Ohio, where he was living with his mother. The arrest came just days before he was scheduled to move to Kuwait to work for a contracting firm aiding the U.S. military.
If convicted, Verbeke faces as much as 20 years in prison.
Junis Fletcher, a D.C. police spokesman, said Verbeke joined the department sometime in 1999 and left in June 2002. He was a patrol officer in the 3rd Police District. Police officials would not comment on the charges against Verbeke.
"This is a case that screams out for detention, your honor,'' Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Lytle told U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema yesterday. "He was entrusted by the people of Washington to serve and protect, but he turned that badge, he turned that gun, into a weapon to sell illicit drugs.''
Brinkema called the charges "very serious allegations" and labeled Verbeke "a risk to the safety of the community" as she ordered him detained. Verbeke wiped away tears as he was led away by U.S. marshals.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32145-2004Jul6.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:23 AM
matt@lefande.com
Rock, Paper, SADDAM!
Judge: ONE PAPER!
Saddam: TIGER HAND! RAWR!!!!! RAWRR! rar. Hahaaa, hi. Tiger Hand. Come on! You Know! ... You don't know Tiger Hand?
Tiger Hand beats paper. Like totally beats paper. Always
http://bigmixup.com/rockpapersaddam/
posted by Matthew LeFande 11:13 AM
matt@lefande.com
Red-Light Camera Busts Cheating Wife
A red light camera in Southern California caught one woman in the act -- of cheating.
Hawthorne, CA Officer Mark Escalante said a local resident is challenging his $341 red-light violation ticket.
The ticket was mailed to the registered owner of the car. But the car owner says the camera's automatic videotape shows he wasn't driving -- it was his wife's lover behind the wheel. The jilted husband is getting a divorce.
But the new red-light traffic cameras snagged more than 1,400 motorists last month in Hawthorne, leading to a slew of complaints.
There's been a threefold increase in tickets since the red-light camera were installed this spring. Cameras snapped pictures that resulted in 1,414 tickets issued in June.
Some motorists outraged over getting the tickets storm into the police station to dispute the violations, not knowing the photos come accompanied by videotape.
http://www.thenewmexicochannel.com/family/3485632/detail.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:14 AM
matt@lefande.com
Lack of Fitness Standards for Chicago Firefighters Criticized
A scathing review of the Chicago Fire Department's performance at a fatal Loop high-rise fire throws salt on three old wounds: affirmative action, cronyism and physical fitness.
By recommending an overhaul of promotion policies -- and competitive exams for virtually all of the Fire Department's 52 exempt-rank positions -- the Mikva Commission aims to eliminate much of the fire commissioner's discretionary personnel power.
Ever since six people died in the Oct. 17 fire at 69 W. Washington, there has been a whispering campaign among rank-and-file firefighters that promotions based not on tests but the commissioner's preference may have played a role in the mistakes made that day.
Critics singled out three firefighters at the Loop fire: Marquez, newly retired Chief Joe Boatner and former 3rd District Chief Norbert Diaz, whom Trotter has since elevated to first deputy. Diaz traded jobs with Marquez in the Trotter shakeup.
Boatner has acknowledged he didn't set up a search-and-rescue team, never got information about 911 calls from people trapped inside the building and was personally told twice that a housekeeper who worked on the 21st floor was missing.
The first time, Boatner said he took the information and filed it away in his head. After the second plea, he dispatched somebody to search for the housekeeper, who was later found dead.
The Mikva Commission's demand for rigorous physical fitness standards and annual testing for firefighters is aimed at firefighters such as Lt. Anthony Williams of Aerial Tower Ladder One.
The heavyset Williams has acknowledged he aborted a search of the smoky southeast stairwell, where the bodies of six victims were later found, after running out of oxygen. He then retreated to the 11th and ninth floors to get fresh air bottles, then returned to the first floor to be treated by paramedics while his crew waited.
"Morbidly obese people shouldn't be fighting fires," said Mikva Commission member Sheila Murphy.
McNally acknowledged that "you may have an individual here or there who's not in the best physical shape." But he argued there is no need for testing or fitness standards -- not when firefighters are forced to carry 100 pounds of equipment on their backs and face the wrath of colleagues if they can't.
"If somebody isn't pulling their weight or doing their share, other people have to pick up the slack, and they don't tolerate that. You could call it a self-policing thing," he said.
Both New York and Los Angeles routinely test their firefighters for strength and stamina -- unlike Chicago, which does not require such exams.
New York firefighters must get an annual physical that includes tests for hearing, sight, a stress test and a cholesterol screening.
In Los Angeles, there is a wellness center run by a doctor who helps firefighters with individual problems -- like weight gain or healthy eating -- and also sets fitness goals. Checks for strength, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness are reported quarterly but the tests are not punitive. They are intended to catch a problem early, officials there said.
Few fire departments across the country mandate physical fitness programs, according to a national firefighters organization, though many are moving toward providing time during shifts for exercise.
In Los Angeles, Battalion Chief Ralph Terrazas said he makes it clear to all his captains that he expects some downtime to be spent working out. "We hold the captains accountable to get everybody involved. I do their evaluations. I tell them my expectations. . . . And I set the example."
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-fire02.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:53 AM
matt@lefande.com
Bush is dumb - no wait, he's brilliant
As the Bush-bashing "Fahrenheit 9/11" ended, the saggy, bald-with-ponytail guys and their comrades in Earth Mother attire cheered and applauded so explosively that I thought the movie theater had been invaded by Frenchies.
Then common sense prevailed. The French? Invade? Ha.
Actually, the crowd was comprised of ordinary people - if ordinary is believing that George W. Bush stole the presidential election in 2000 while Democratic leaders stood by like doofuses. That Iraq under mass murderer Saddam Hussein posed no threat. And that W is a corrupt, immoral sociopath who duped America into going to war to honor old ties with the Saudis and to make money for his cronies in Big Oil.
Filmmaker Michael Moore, who is very funny and has done wonderful work in previous films, sure knows his audience. He spins sinister, intricate conspiracies about why we really went to Iraq and Afghanistan, none of which has to do with Osama bin Laden declaring war on us five times, the U.N.'s cowardly failure to enforce its own resolutions regarding Iraq, and a Clinton administration policy for "regime change" in Baghdad.
Details, details. I'm sure the ever-thoughtful John Kerry is appalled at Moore's lack of nuance in these matters.
What "Fahrenheit" makes clear is how confused the Bush bashers are.
For years, they've told us that Bush, with degrees from Harvard and Yale, is dumb. He lacks "gravitas." In the words of one of the great political minds of our time, Martin Sheen, "George W. Bush is a moron."
Moore makes this point with clips of Bush fumbling over words in speeches and talking about armadillos while vacationing at his Texas ranch.
Moore makes much of Bush waiting seven minutes while he reads "My Pet Goat" to a group of grade school kids in Florida shortly after being told that the World Trade Center has been attacked. There's even a helpful little clock at the bottom of the screen in case you're not smart enough to know how long seven minutes is.
"Really. Seven minutes passed with nobody doing anything," Moore narrates, dolefully.
Seven minutes. How awful. But then, Bill Clinton waited eight years. You decide which is worse.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/219-07012004-325057.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:47 PM
matt@lefande.com
