Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
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Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
All
rights reserved. No claim to original government forms
Police Stretched Thin In Prince George's County
Margaret Logan lived the first half of her life in New York and said she knew too well the randomness of crime. In 1978, she moved to southern Prince George's County, where rural back roads replaced the cacophony of the city streets.
Until recently, she said, her Clinton neighborhood could not have been more idyllic.
"I left the city to feel safe here, and now I feel the same fear for my family that I did living in the city," Logan, 53, told elected officials and top-ranking police officers at a community meeting last week in Brandywine, organized in response to rising crime and a simultaneous personnel shortage.
Hundreds of residents packed a room at the Baden firehouse off Brandywine Road to discuss the dwindling police presence in the county's 5th Police District, which stretches roughly from parts of Upper Marlboro to the Charles and Calvert County lines, and where about 90,000 people live. Oftentimes, they said, crime victims wait hours before an officer responds to their calls.
Police officials and union leaders who attended the meeting, all of whom confirmed the long waits, said there's a simple reason for them: In the county's 5th Police District, geographically its largest, 31 officers are assigned to patrol its 180 square miles. Most shifts, four or five officers are on duty, and they often traverse the entire swath answering the roughly 150 calls the district fields each day.
In recent weeks, for example, as few as two officers have been on patrol, including Nov. 15, when two worked from midnight to 8 a.m. The night of the meeting, Nov. 17, four officers were on duty.
"It's become a situation where if all hell breaks loose, there will only be a small handful of officers who can respond, and if they are at the other end of the district, it will take them too long to get to the scene," said Donnie Bell, vice president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 89.
"Not only is the safety of the citizens at stake, but so is the safety of the officers," Bell said. "Officers need adequate backup for emergency calls."
As the county's population has grown, calls for service in the district, based in Clinton, have increased from about 22,000 in 1992 to about 38,000 in 2003. In the same period, the number of sworn officers assigned to the district has fallen from about 90.
Under the law, officers must be able to respond within an average of 25 minutes to non-emergency calls and an average of 10 minutes to emergency calls. But residents complain repeatedly about long waits, often much longer than an hour.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18668-2004Nov28.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:44 AM
matt@lefande.com
At Home in the Middle of Wisconsin and M
During the day, Joseph Pozell has a fairly quiet job: He manages a cemetery in Georgetown.
But as the evening rush hour beckons, Pozell takes on a new identity in a very noisy place: He becomes a traffic officer at one of Georgetown's busiest intersections -- the neighborhood hub, M Street and Wisconsin Avenue NW.
The 58-year-old activist volunteers his time as a reserve officer for the D.C. police department, one of about 190 reserve officers who help police with a variety of tasks. For a couple of hours most weeknights, Pozell can be found blowing his whistle, hollering directions and motioning drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to stop, slow down and, sometimes, speed up.
"A lot of us who live here in Georgetown complain about traffic," said Pozell, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1971, is married and has a 26-year-old son. "I wanted to do something that wasn't being done. It's just a good way to do something for the community that I love."
Pozell began directing traffic in December, when an underground utilities project on M Street created even greater snarls on the busy roadway. Although he is not paid for the work, Pozell said he felt compelled to step in because traffic is such an issue in the neighborhood of narrow, cramped streets. The work is an extension of his community involvement. In the past, Pozell has helped form committees to help reduce panhandling and control crowds of revelers who descend upon the area on Halloween.
Wearing his bright green police vest, along with gloves that have reflectors on the palms and fingers, Pozell commands the attention of pedestrians, cyclists, drivers and others trying to get through the crowds.
Ron Amon, a bicyclist from Northern Virginia, said his rides in the area have gotten smoother with Pozell at the helm.
"He makes me more aware. You know when to stop, and you know when to go," Amon said. "This man's discretion, to me, is worth all the value in the world."
Pozell has a routine that is familiar to the regulars. A long blast on the whistle tells motorists to stop, and two short blows tell them to get moving, said Pozell, who learned the tricks of the traffic trade in his studies as a reserve officer. Three short whistles are for pedestrians: That means stop.
"I try to do it as low as possible, but if someone doesn't listen, I have to give them a loud blast," he said.
On a recent evening, it seemed as though everyone was looking at Pozell for instruction.
At 5:18, a woman driving a silver Lexus with Maryland tags was trying to beat a red light. The driver started to turn right onto Wisconsin, but Pozell whistled and motioned. She stopped in her tracks and backed up, out of the crosswalk, to allow pedestrians to cross the street.
At 5:55, when a taxi driver turning left onto M Street inched into another lane, Pozell called out, "Sir, stay on your side of the line!"
Not everyone follows directions. Pozell said the worst offenders are pedestrians who are so busy on their cell phones that they step off the sidewalks and walk into traffic without looking.
When a young man ran across M Street -- against the traffic signal -- Pozell gave him a stern warning. The man had a rather feeble explanation. "I just had a bad day and I didn't feel like stopping," he said.
Minutes later, when a man driving a gray Toyota Corolla with D.C. tags lurched into the crosswalk on Wisconsin, with a cellular phone to his ear, Pozell reacted quickly.
Pozell can -- and does -- write citations. But in this case, he issued a warning. "I'm not going to write you a ticket," Pozell told the driver, who claimed to be unaware that he had done anything wrong. "I'm just going to tell you what the law is."
Pozell's efforts have drawn praise from police and people on the street.
"It certainly relieves the police officers that work in that area to respond to other incidents, knowing that Joe has that intersection under control," said Robert Contee, commander of the 2nd Police District. He called Pozell a "tremendous asset."
Larry Olds, 45, walks with a cane and wears braces on his legs because of hip and knee problems. He said he likes having Pozell around when he needs to cross the street.
"He's the best in the world," Olds said. "He's real nice. He's real friendly. He's just about the best traffic cop I've ever seen. He gets everything in order."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17375-2004Nov28.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:35 AM
matt@lefande.com
Bush Pulls Top Bodyguard From Scuffle
President Bush stepped into the middle of a confrontation and pulled his lead Secret Service agent away from Chilean security officials who barred his bodyguards from entering an elegant dinner for 21 world leaders Saturday night.
Several Chilean and American agents got into a pushing and shoving match outside the cultural center where the dinner was held. The incident happened after Bush and his wife, Laura, had just posed for pictures on a red carpet with the host of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and his wife, Luisa Duran.
As Bush stepped inside, Chilean agents closed ranks at the door, blocking the president's agents from following. Stopping for more pictures, Bush noticed the fracas and turned back. He reached through the dispute and pulled his agent from the scrum and into the building.
The president, looking irritated, straightened his shirt cuffs as he went into the dinner.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/bush_security_fracas
posted by Matthew LeFande 12:08 PM
matt@lefande.com
Auditor finds for former DC medic
The D.C. auditor has ruled that a former paramedic was passed over for promotion illegally but will not say whether the incident is a case of reverse discrimination.
Brandon W. Graham, who worked for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS), says officials created arbitrary requirements for a supervisory position to promote a black woman less qualified for the job.
Mr. Graham is white and served nine years as a paramedic in the District before resigning in December 2003.
"It became very clear to me that personnel issues within the agency were being made based on factors other than merit," Mr. Graham said yesterday. "It was also clear to me that I had no meaningful future in the fire department."
D.C. Auditor Deborah K. Nichols gave the report to Chief Adrian H. Thompson, who requested the investigation.
Investigators concluded that Mr. Graham should have been promoted and that the process used to deny him a supervisory job was "improper." But it does not wade into the issue of whether the promotional process was racially biased, stating that the auditor's office does not investigate racial discrimination claims.
According to the auditor's report, EMS officials attempted in March 2003 to create a permanent job for LaShon Frazier, who was appointed in an acting supervisory capacity by former Chief Ronnie Few to evaluate paramedics and emergency medical technicians.
The report states Miss Frazier later complained that she was being less of an acting supervisor than she would have been had the job been permanent.
Miss Frazier and Deputy Chief John T. Spruill then worked on a job description and announcement for the job she was performing. Chief Spruill and Miss Frazier are black.
The announcement was posted by the city's Office of Personnel last year from March 13 to 19. Five persons, including Mr. Graham, applied.
The report was issued Tuesday and states Chief Spruill called officials at the personnel office after the job announcement was posted and added a new requirement that candidates must have at least four years' experience as a supervisory paramedic.
Chief Spruill said the amendment was inserted after consulting with Dr. Fernando Daniels III, then the department's medical director.
The new requirement disqualified Mr. Graham.
Miss Frazier, who has 18 years on the job, was awarded the promotion in May 2003.
"The auditor found that the vacancy announcement and process used by certain current and former Fire/EMS personnel to select candidates was designed to ensure [Miss Frazier's] placement," the report states.
It also says officials in the Office of Personnel failed to disregard the amended announcement requiring four years' experience.
One recommendation in the report is that employees who benefited from the practices that resulted in Miss Frazier's promotion should be "held accountable to the fullest extent permitted."
Fire officials would not comment yesterday on what corrective action they would take.
"There are several recommendations and we are taking them very seriously," said Kathryn Friedman, a fire department spokeswoman. "Beyond that, this is a personnel matter, so we can't discuss it."
Mr. Graham filed a lawsuit last year, saying the incident was racially motivated. As part of his case, Mr. Graham submitted a sworn affidavit from Kenneth Lyons, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3721, which represents the city's paramedics.
Mr. Lyons testified that in 2001 he attended a meeting at which Dr. Daniels made racially charged remarks when Mr. Lyons suggested several paramedics, some white, be considered for promotion.
Dr. Daniels was fired in August after patient records detailing questionable care by firefighter-medics were leaked to The Washington Times.
About two dozen — or more than one-third — of the fire department's captains filed a lawsuit in March against the city, the fire department and Chief Thompson, citing reverse discrimination in promotional practices. The case is pending.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20041119-102441-9502r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:28 AM
matt@lefande.com
Officer injured in freak accident
Spare bullets heated by a handheld searchlight in a Racine Police Department squad car grazed an officer's face on Thursday, causing minor injury.
The 35-year-old police officer was taken to the hospital in ambulance after the accidental shooting, which occurred at 2:18 p.m. in the 1300 block of Villa Street.
The shooting was caused by a bag of spare bullets left in the back of the car on top of the searchlight, which turned on, heated the ammunition and detonated the 9 mm bullet.
Police refused to name either of the two police officers in Thursday's accident. The 35-year-old officer's injuries were not life-threatening and weren't considered serious, police spokesman Sgt. William Macemon said. The officer was being checked out at a hospital late Thursday afternoon.
Angie Lafournier, 32, was sitting on the porch of her home at 1321 Villa St. when she saw the patrol car turn a corner on the street. Then she heard a "bang." The patrol car pulled over, the officers got out of the car, pulled the bag out of the car and put it on the ground. They were looking the bag over when she heard a second "bang."
The call over the police radio, for an officer with a gunshot wound, brought a massive police response to the area. Police also called the bomb squad from Kenosha County to handle the ammunition, Macemon said.
The injured officer, a 7-year veteran of the force, is a member of the police department's SWAT team, Macemon said. As such, he is authorized to carry his SWAT weapon and spare ammunition in his patrol car. In this case, the ammo was kept in a duffle-style bag.
The weight of the bag apparently activated the searchlight, Macemon said. The heat from the searchlight caused the ammunition to fire.
The first round apparently went straight down into the searchlight, Macemon said. That's when the officers pulled over and removed the bag to inspect. As they looked at the bag, the second round fired.
While it did not appear any department policies were violated, the department may also review how officers carry their spare ammunition, Macemon said. "Obviously, we don't want this happening again."
http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2004/11/19/local/iq_3223762.txt
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:17 PM
matt@lefande.com
Illinois Supreme Court dismisses lawsuits against gunmakers over use of weapons by criminals
The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed two lawsuits that accused gun manufacturers of creating a "public nuisance" by knowingly letting their weapons fall into the hands of criminals.
The lawsuits, filed in 1998 by the city of Chicago and victims of gun violence, accused the gunmakers of pouring weapons into the Chicago area that kill people and lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in law-enforcement and health care costs.
But the court ruled there was no legal basis for holding the manufacturers responsible.
Justice Rita Garman, writing the court's opinion in both cases, said the defendants, which also included gun distributors and suburban Chicago gun shops, had not created the "public nuisance" as claimed in the lawsuits.
"The mere fact that defendants' conduct in their plants, offices, and stores puts guns into the stream of commerce does not state a claim for public nuisance," Garman wrote. "It is the presence and use of the guns within the city of Chicago that constitutes the alleged nuisance, not the activities at the defendants' various places of business."
Gun advocates had argued the cases threatened the Second Amendment by standing in the way of people wishing to purchase a legal product. Among the defendants in the lawsuits were Smith & Wesson Holdings Corp., Beretta USA Corp. and Sturm Ruger & Co.
"It looks like a blanket dismissal," said William Howard, lawyer for Chuck's Gun Shop, a suburban retailer that sold a gun eventually used in the 1998 gang killing of a Chicago police officer.
Similar lawsuits had been filed nationwide targeting alleged health and safety breaches caused by guns. An earlier wave of product-liability lawsuits -- claims similar to those against the tobacco industry -- failed.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/11/18/financial1105EST0082.DTL
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:55 AM
matt@lefande.com
Reserve Deputy Killed In Shooting
North Carolina law enforcement officials continued their investigation Friday of a fatal shooting Thursday night that involved five people, including two deputies.
Three people were killed, including a reserve deputy with the department. James Johnson Sr., 59, died in the incident. He had been with the department since October 1997.
Another deputy, Jeremy Rowley, was taken to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. He is being treated in the intensive care unit, but is expected to survive.
Two residents of Vance Road were killed. There names have not been released by authorities.
"This is certainly the most horrific incident we have had in a long time," said Forsyth County Sheriff Bill Schatzman.
The incident started as a dispute between neighbors, authorities said. Neighbors said the shooter was Denny C. Booth, 59, who had moved away from Vance Road about a month ago.
Booth was shot during the exchange and is being treated at Baptist Hospital. He will be charged with three counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder, authorities said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6465539/
posted by Matthew LeFande 12:52 PM
matt@lefande.com
Hispanic gang plots to ambush Maryland cops
Police officials in Prince George's and Montgomery counties are warning officers that a Salvadoran street gang is plotting to ambush and kill them when they respond to service calls.
The warnings have been issued based on intelligence gathered from the Langley Park area, a known base for members of the MS-13 gang, officials said. The area straddles the two counties.
The department has instructed officers to ask for backup if they have suspicions about a call to which they are dispatched.
MS-13, which is among the largest and the most violent street gangs, has members in Maryland and the District, but is concentrated in Northern Virginia. In recent years, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore and Rep. Frank R. Wolf have each created regional or statewide task forces to combat the growing problem of gang violence.
Authorities said gang activity has contributed to a rise in violent crime in Hispanic communities, but gang members also are branching out into drug trafficking, car-theft rings and prostitution.
In July 2002, The Washington Times reported that MS-13 had dispatched about 20 gang members from California to Fairfax County to kill a county police officer at random.
There were two confirmed cases in which MS-13 members tried to lure officers behind buildings in the Culmore area of Fairfax County to ambush them, but no officers were killed.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20041112-095753-8573r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 2:05 PM
matt@lefande.com
U.S. unsure if arrests foiled terror plots
More than 700 people were arrested on immigration violations and thousands more subjected to FBI interviews in an intense government effort to avert a terrorist attack aimed at disrupting the election.
As with past unrealized al Qaeda threats, law enforcement officials said Thursday they don't know for sure whether any of those arrests or interviews foiled an attack.
''It's very hard to prove a negative,'' Michael Garcia, chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Thursday. ``We did cases and operations for people we thought posed national security concerns. We didn't arrest anyone who had a bomb.''
For example, immigration agents arrested a 23-year-old Pakistani man in late October who had illegally entered the United States through Mexico in 2000 and was working as a fuel tanker truck driver with access to a major U.S. seaport.
The man, who was not further identified, is charged with making false statements about how he entered the country and remains under investigation for any links to terrorism.
He was one of the 237 people arrested in October alone on immigration violations, for a total of more than 700 since the enforcement effort began last year, Garcia said. ''It was a broad approach that led us to have a very disruptive effect, we believe,'' he said.
Although the election season passed without an attack, officials say al Qaeda remains a dangerous foe intent on striking the United States again.
The Jan. 20 presidential inauguration heads the list of upcoming high-profile events that officials say could draw terrorist interest.
Others include the Feb. 6 Super Bowl in Jacksonville and the December holiday travel season, which last year saw several threats against trans-Atlantic flights.
There still is concern the Osama bin Laden videotape aired last week could be a signal for an attack. And despite asking for help from the public, the FBI still has not identified a man calling himself ''Azzam the American,'' whose lengthy videotape aired last month promised attacks that will make U.S. streets ``run red with blood.''
The FBI interviewed about 10,000 Muslims and Arab-Americans in the months prior to Election Day in an effort to gain intelligence about people who might pose a threat and to build bridges to those communities.
Many of those interviews led officials to individuals in the United States who might be linked to terrorism but had previously escaped government detection, said a senior Justice Department official speaking on condition of anonymity.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/10103971.htm?1c
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:28 PM
matt@lefande.com
Blue states buzz over secession
Secession, which didn't work very well when it was tried once before, is suddenly red hot in the blue states. In certain precincts, anyway.
The Internet has exploded with talk of a blue-state confederacy, including one screed circulating by e-mail that features a map of a new country called "American Coastopia" and proposes lopping off the Northeast, the West Coast and the upper Midwest to form a new country, away from the "rednecks in Oklahoma" and the "homophobic knuckle-draggers in Wyoming."
"We were all going to move to various other countries, but then we thought — why should WE move?" the anonymous message asks. "We hold our noses as we fly over you. We are sickened by the way you treat people that are different from you. The rest of the world despises America, and we don't want to be lumped in with you anymore."
No one at the White House would comment on the calls for secession, but one top Republican official with ties to the Bush administration said the recent talk is not surprising, coming off an election in which the president received more than 59 million votes — the most in history.
"If we were that far out of the mainstream, maybe we'd be pushing the creation of our own country," the official said. "Then we might have a chance of ever winning an election again."
But Andy Nowicki, a libertarian blogger, said the blue states will never secede because "liberals don't want to leave their enemies alone. Instead, as their track record shows, they want to take over the government in order to force their enemies to endure perpetual sensitivity training for being such racist, sexist, homophobic, 'closed-minded' boors, i.e., for disagreeing with them."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20041109-122753-5113r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:50 AM
matt@lefande.com
Firefighter's widow battles for survivor benefits
Massachusetts (AP) -- Firefighter Marty McNamara had two young daughters and a third on the way when he barreled into a burning basement last November. His family was protected by the same accidental death benefit that covers every part-time firefighter in the state: none.
On Tuesday, the town of Lancaster voted to deny McNamara's widow survivor benefits, a move that has sparked outrage in and out of the town, where the local newspaper's headline read, "Lancaster picks pocketbook over heart by 18 votes."
McNamara's death, and the subsequent vote, exposed a system in which towns ask part-time and volunteer firefighters to risk their lives, but leave their families with nothing if a fire takes them.
According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, half the states have no pension benefits for widows of volunteer firefighters who die in the line of duty. Some, unlike Massachusetts, also have no one-time payment to the families. A few don't even pay for funerals.
The $650,000 annuity proposed for McNamara -- which would pay about $30,000 annually -- would cost the town about $1.8 million over several decades, Dunn said.
McNamara's family, who live in neighboring Clinton, have received about $400,000 in one-time state and federal benefits, in addition to the charitable donations. Dunn said the town may consider raising funds through private donations or selling town property.
But Dunn is hoping for a broader solution: asking the state's 230 towns with on-call or volunteer departments for a one-time, $30,000 investment into a reserve fund to pay death benefits.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/07/firefighter.payout.ap/index.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:04 PM
matt@lefande.com
Colorado inmate accesses personal info on County employees using computer provided by County.
A thousand current and former Weld County employees were notified Thursday to look for signs of identity theft, after at least one inmate obtained personal information about them through a jail computer provided for inmate use.
The warning came two weeks after the Weld County computer consulting company and the sheriff were notified that the county computer system may have been compromised by jail inmates.
The inmate was able to obtain the workers' names, social security numbers and salaries. The Weld County sheriff is investigating how many inmates may have accessed the same personal information and is trying to determine if the information ended up outside the jail system.
According to Weld County Sheriff John Cooke, documents with private information were discovered in the cell of 38-year-old Alfred Loader, incarcerated on vehicular assault and failure to appear charges. Loader is also wanted in Tennessee on theft charges. Loader accessed the information on one of nine computers in the jail's law library used by inmates to access information on their own court cases.
The security permissions of their network were not set up correctly," Jenet said, which meant all the inmates had access to sensitive directories.
ACS took over a computer contract at the jail about a year ago, and had recently upgraded the system.
Late Thursday afternoon the sheriff's department sent a letter out to the thousand Weld County employees whose information was found in Loader's cell. The list included members of the Weld County Retirement program in the year 2000 and before. Among those names, several Weld County commissioners, the clerk-of-courts, the auditor and the sheriff himself.
http://www.9news.com/acm_news
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:45 AM
matt@lefande.com
Standardized Field Sobriety Testing traffic stop video.
Good Laugh.
http://70.84.2.68/files03/topdui.wmv
posted by Matthew LeFande 11:59 AM
matt@lefande.com
Producing a Hollywood flop
For a rich and powerful demographic used to getting its way, Hollywood was downbeat yesterday as President Bush — more heinous than a mid-February release date to so many celebrities and other bold-faced names — made his gracious victory speech.
Not only entertainers were said to be dispirited. The literary crowd in New York was crying into its Evian.
"Sure, I feel terrible," said New Yorker editor David Remnick, whose published endorsement of Mr. Kerry was a first for the magazine. "There are a lot of long faces today."
And "Fahrenheit 9/11" propagandist Michael Moore's Web site actually went silent.
That's the same Mr. Moore who only a couple of weeks ago had paused in his anti-Bush road trip to opine: "I have a feeling that slackers are going to rise up in this election. The slacker motto is: Sleep till noon, drink beer, vote Kerry."
George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire who went on his own 12-city speaking tour and spent an estimated $17 million on ads and get-out-the-vote drives to defeat the president, posted a message on his Web site describing himself as "distressed."
Buoyed by early exit polls that put their candidate ahead, many in Beverly Hills dined together and waited out the night. Slowly, their leading man faded from the political screen.
"There's a lot of disappointment out here. A lot of apprehension," said Robert Dowling, editor in chief of the Hollywood Reporter. "People are comatose."
"Celebrity testimonials may help [sell] erectile-dysfunction products," Marty Kaplan, communications professor at the University of South Carolina, told Agence France-Presse, "but in politics, they're mainly eye candy for the media."
Mr. Dowling agreed.
"It didn't work," he said of the Democrats' star-studded support.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20041104-121432-2713r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:32 AM
matt@lefande.com
Fear of a Red Planet
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:02 PM
matt@lefande.com
Armed UK police angry at suspension
Over 120 firearms officers in London are refusing to carry guns after two colleagues were suspended over a fatal shooting, police representatives claim.
Harry Stanley, 46, was shot in 1999 after police mistook a table leg he was carrying for a shotgun.
An inquest on Friday returned a verdict of unlawful killing and Pc Kevin Fagan and Insp Neil Sharman were suspended.
The Stanley family's solicitor, Daniel Machover, said the inquest decided the officers had not acted in self-defence.
On Monday, after meetings involving members of SO19, the Metropolitan Police's 400-strong specialist firearms unit, 20 officers handed in their cards authorising them to carry weapons.
The Metropolitan Police Federation (MPF), which represents officers, said that by Tuesday over 120 firearms officers had now handed back their authorisation to carry weapons.
The body also said there were no specialist firearms officers on duty in London on Tuesday.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3973261.stm
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:37 AM
matt@lefande.com
Warning to 'RED' States
The Middle East Media Research Institute, which monitors and translates Arabic media and Internet sites, said radical Islamist commentators monitored over the Internet this past weekend also interpreted the key passage of bin Laden's diatribe to mean that any U.S. state that votes to elect Bush on Tuesday will be considered an "enemy" and any state that votes for Kerry has "chosen to make peace with us."
The statement in question is when bin Laden said on the tape: "Your security is up to you, and any state that does not toy with our security automatically guarantees its own security."
That sentence followed a lengthy passage in the video in which bin Laden launches personal attacks on the president.
Yigal Carmon, president of MEMRI, said bin Laden used the Arabic term "ay-wilaya" to refer to a "state" in that sentence.
That term "specifically refers to an American state, like Tennessee," Carmon said, adding that if bin Laden were referring to a "country" he would have used the Arabic word "dawla."
MEMRI also translated an analysis of bin Laden's statement from the Islamist Web site al-Qal'a, well known for posting al-Qaeda messages, which agreed that bin Laden's use of the word "ay-wilaya" was meant as a "warning to every U.S state separately."
"It means that any U.S. state that will choose to vote for the white thug Bush as president, it means that it chose to fight us and we will consider it an enemy to us, and any state that will vote against Bush, it means that it chose to make peace with us and we will not characterize it as an enemy," the Web site said, according to MEMRI's translation.
http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/33124.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:24 AM
matt@lefande.com
