Saturday, August 27, 2005

Kin keep faith for stricken rookie  

Nobody joins law enforcement without knowing the dangers involved.

Charlie Hopkins, 22, certainly was aware of the risks when he graduated from the police academy this month.

But he could not have expected he would end up with severe head injuries and multiple broken bones just 13 days after his wife pinned his state Department of Public Safety badge on him.

He never could have thought he would be in an induced coma as doctors wait for the swelling in his brain to go down.

But now he lies in a bed at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, while his wife and 8-month-old daughter wait.

Hopkins graduated from the Arizona Law Enforcement Academy on Aug. 5. He had just started the specialized training for the DPS when a large marijuana field was discovered near Payson.

Hopkins and others were called to help pull up the plants and were staying in Payson until the job was finished.

About 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 18, Hopkins was walking along Arizona 87 in Payson when he was hit by a vehicle; the driver didn't stop.

Reed Hatch, 22, of Payson, was arrested later that night on charges of aggravated assault and leaving the scene of an injury accident.

Now Hopkins' family waits. He wife, Serena, 23, says the couple's daughter, Leah, has been her salvation.

"She has helped me through so much. She has been the best thing for me," Serena said.

Hopkins was not technically on duty when he was hit, and he was not in uniform. His injuries, however, are being treated as having occurred in the line of duty because he was in Payson on DPS business.

For his family, the hard part is not knowing what is next. Because he has been in the coma since shortly after he was hit, his family still does not whether there will be permanent brain damage.

His wife, however, said she is certain he will make a full recovery.

"He's going to be fine. I know that in my heart," Serena said.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0827DPSOfficer27.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:22 PM
matt@lefande.com

Friday, August 26, 2005

DOJ Sued For Violation of Federal Right-to-Carry Law  

On July 11, 2005 the LDF Panel Firm of Silver, Hadden & Silver filed suit against the Department of Justice, and individually against its managers for violation of HR 218, the federal right-to-carry law which was enacted in 2004 .

The suit was filed on behalf of Robert Reza, a Special Agent who on March 3, 2004 was honorably retired from DOJ after 14 years. Prior to working for DOJ, Reza was employed for 7 years as a State Traffic Officer for the California Highway Patrol.

Subsequent to his retirement, Reza requested DOJ issue him a license to carry a concealed weapon, a request commonly granted retiring California peace officers even prior to the passage of HR 218. On June 17, 2004 DOJ denied the request without reason and on June 30, 2004 Reza, through CAUSE Legal, requested a hearing pursuant to the applicable provisions of the California Penal Code as well as an explanation for the basis of the denial.

Having received no response to the request for hearing, on July 22, 2004 CAUSE Legal reasserted its request on behalf of Reza for a CCW hearing and explanation. On August 6, 2004 DOJ finally responded to the requests explaining the basis of the denial was due to an "alleged history of derogatory incidents and mishandling of State-issued equipment."

In over 14 years of service as a Special Agent Reza was an exemplary employee, having worked a speicalized unit known as the Violence Suppression Unit which targeted hard core criminals, gang members and federal fugitives. Reza risked his life to protect the citizens of California and was awarded the distinguished Meritorious Service Award. Reza retired with over 21 years of law enforcement experience and no pending investigations or discipline.

While the hearing on Reza's entitlement under California law was pending, on July 22, 2004 President Bush signed HR 218 into law which permits 'qualifed retired law enforcement officers' (QRLEO) to carry concealed firearms. A QRLEO is an individual who (1) had the power to arrest while employed; (2) was regularly employed as a law enforcement officer for an aggregate of 15 years or retired for industrial injury; (3) during the 12 months preceding retirement met the State's standards for training and qualification with a firearm; (4) is not under the influence of alcohol or intoxicating drugs.

Despite the passage of HR 218 and the fact that Reza is a QRLEO under the Act, DOJ continued in its steadfast refusal to issue Reza a CCW. To add insult to injury, on February 9, 2005 Reza's retirement credential was stolen from his vehicle. When DOJ issued a replacement credential it was marked in red uppercase letters: "Not authorized to carry a concealed weapon", language which had not been enscribed on his original credential.

The conduct of DOJ and its managers have subjected Reza to humiliation and embarassment, but more importantly have exposed Reza and his innocent family to physical harm should they encounter any one of the numerous violent gang members and criminals he helped prosecute.

Based upon the fact that DOJ is flaunting a federal law which is designed to supersede California law and ensure honorably retired peace officers throughout the State are permitted to carry a concealed weapon, the LDF Board of Trustees authorized suit.

The lawsuit filed by Reza alleges four separate causes of action including violation of Reza's civil rights against the Department of Justice, Patrick Lunney, Wilfredo Cid, Rick Oules and John Gaines.

http://www.cause7.com/show_article.asp?article_id=294

posted by Matthew LeFande 11:05 AM
matt@lefande.com

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Some Thoughts on Casualties in Times of War and Peace  

It is universally acknowledged that public support for the Iraq war is eroding. Some of the polls supporting this claim are faulty because they are based on obviously misleading internal data, but the basic point cannot be denied: many Americans, possibly even a majority, have turned against the war.

This should hardly be a surprise. On the contrary, how could it be otherwise? News reporting on the war consists almost entirely of itemizing casualties. Headlines say: "Two Marines killed by roadside bomb." Rarely do the accompanying stories--let alone the headlines that are all that most people read--explain where the Marines were going, or why; what strategic objective they and their comrades were pursuing, and how successful they were in achieving it; or how many terrorists were also killed. For Americans who do not seek out alternative news sources like this one, the war in Iraq is little but a succession of American casualties. The wonder is that so many Americans do, nevertheless, support it.

The sins of the news media in reporting on Iraq are mainly sins of omission. Not only do news outlets generally fail to report the progress that is being made, and often fail to put military operations into any kind of tactical or strategic perspective, they assiduously avoid talking about the overarching strategic reason for our involvement there: the Bush administration's conviction that the only way to solve the problem of Islamic terrorism, long term, is to help liberate the Arab countries so that their peoples' energies will be channelled into the peaceful pursuits of free enterprise and democracy, rather than into bizarre ideologies and terrorism. Partly this omission is due to laziness or incomprehension, but I think it is mostly attributable to the fact that if the media acknowledged that reforming the Arab world, in order to drain the terrorist swamp, has always been the principal purpose of the Iraq war, it would take the sting out of their "No large stockpiles of WMDs!" theme.

One wonders how past wars could have been fought if news reporting had consisted almost entirely of a recitation of casualties. The D-Day invasion was one of the greatest organizational feats ever achieved by human beings, and one of the most successful. But what if the only news Americans had gotten about the invasion was that 2,500 allied soldiers died that day, with no discussion of whether the invasion was a success or a failure, and no acknowledgement of the huge strategic stakes that were involved? Or what if such news coverage had continued, day by day, through the entire Battle of Normandy, with Americans having no idea whether the battle was being won or lost, but knowing only that 54,000 Allied troops had been killed by the Germans?

How about the Battle of Midway, one of the most one-sided and strategically significant battles of world history? What if there had been no "triumphalism"--that dreaded word--in the American media's reporting on the battle, and Americans had learned only that 307 Americans died--never mind that the Japanese lost more than ten times that many--without being told the decisive significance of the engagement?

Or take Iwo Jima, the iconic Marine Corps battle. If Americans knew only that nearly 7,000 Marines lost their lives there, with no context, no strategy, and only sporadic acknowledgement of the heroism that accompanied those thousands of deaths, would the American people have continued the virtually unanimous support for our country, our soldiers and our government that characterized World War II?

We are conducting an experiment never before seen, as far as I know, in the history of the human race. We are trying to fight a war under the auspices of an establishment that is determined--to put the most charitable face on it--to emphasize American casualties over all other information about the war.

Sometimes it becomes necessary to state the obvious: being a soldier is a dangerous thing. This is why we honor our service members' courage. For a soldier, sailor or Marine, "courage" isn't an easily-abused abstraction--"it took a lot of courage to vote against the farm bill"--it's a requirement of the job.

Even in peacetime. The media's breathless tabulation of casualties in Iraq--now, over 1,800 deaths--is generally devoid of context. Here's some context: between 1983 and 1996, 18,006 American military personnel died accidentally in the service of their country. That death rate of 1,286 per year exceeds the rate of combat deaths in Iraq by a ratio of nearly two to one.

That's right: all through the years when hardly anyone was paying attention, soldiers, sailors and Marines were dying in accidents, training and otherwise, at nearly twice the rate of combat deaths in Iraq from the start of the war in 2003 to the present. Somehow, though, when there was no political hay to be made, I don't recall any great outcry, or gleeful reporting, or erecting of crosses in the President's home town. In fact, I'll offer a free six-pack to the first person who can find evidence that any liberal expressed concern--any concern--about the 18,006 American service members who died accidentally in service of their country from 1983 to 1996.

The point? Being a soldier is not safe, and never will be. This afternoon a mainstream media reporter said that around 2,000 service men and women have died in Afghanistan and Iraq "on President Bush's watch." As though the job of the Commander in Chief were to make the jobs of our soldiers safe. They're not safe, and they never will be safe, in peacetime, let alone wartime.

What is the President's responsibility? To expend our most precious resources only when necessary, in service of the national interest. We would all prefer that our soldiers never be required to fight. Everyone--most of all, every politician--much prefers peace to war. But when our enemies fly airplanes into our skyscrapers; attack the nerve center of our armed forces; bomb our embassies; scheme to blow up our commercial airliners; try to assassinate our former President; do their best to shoot down our military aircraft; murder our citizens; assassinate our diplomats overseas; and attack our naval vessels--well, then, the time has come to fight. And when the time comes to fight, our military personnel are ready. They don't ask to be preserved from all danger. They know their job is dangerous; they knew that when they signed up. They are prepared to face the risk, on our behalf. All they ask is to be allowed to win.

It is a reasonable request. It's the least that we--all Americans, including reporters and editors--can do.

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011443.php

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:08 AM
matt@lefande.com

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Wedding sting hits smuggling ring  

The guests thought they were headed to an early afternoon wedding on a yacht docked near Atlantic City in the United States.

They ended up in jail instead, courtesy of an elaborate ruse by U.S. federal authorities hoping to bust up an international smuggling ring.

Lengthy undercover investigations on opposite sides of the country resulted in indictments of 87 Asians and U.S. citizens on charges of smuggling counterfeit money, drugs and cigarettes into the United States, law enforcement officials said Monday.

Authorities said they seized $4.4 million in high-quality fake $100 bills, more than 1 billion counterfeit cigarettes worth $42 million, and ecstasy, methamphetamine and Viagra worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Some of the cigarettes were made in China, acting assistant Attorney General John Richter said.

The money appeared to have been produced in North Korea, two officials said on condition of anonymity because there are ongoing counterfeiting investigations involving similar phony currency.

Agents also seized $700,000 in fake U.S. postage stamps and blue jeans worth several hundred thousand dollars, FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said.

Indictments were unsealed Sunday and Monday in Los Angeles and Newark, New Jersey.

Fifty-nine people were arrested during the weekend in 11 cities in Canada and the United States, including Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Newark, Philadelphia and San Diego.

Eight of those charged were arrested on their way to the fake wedding, called for 2 p.m. Sunday, off the Jersey coast. Operation Royal Charm was named for the yacht.

The affair was seven months in the making, and the bride and groom were actually undercover FBI agents who worked with the accused smugglers for several years, said Christopher J. Christie, the U.S. attorney in New Jersey.

"Invitations were sent out, a date was given and RSVPs were received from different points around the world," Christie said at a Justice Department news conference.

"One guest even brought a pair of gold Presidential Rolex watches," New Jersey FBI Special Agent in Charge, Leslie G. Wiser Jr., told reporters in Newark.

They were assured transportation would be provided to the yacht. They were taken into custody instead.

Some of the men arrested Sunday appeared in U.S. District Court in Camden, New Jersey, on Monday in clothes that looked appropriate for a wedding.

None of the counterfeit money or drugs made its way into circulation, but some cigarettes did, officials said.

Agents posing as smugglers arranged to import the fake cash, cigarettes -- stamped with the Marlboro and Newport brands -- and drugs in cargo containers that arrived in ports in Long Beach, Los Angeles and Newark.

The California operation, in which the bulk of the cigarettes were seized, was dubbed Operation Smoking Dragon.

The containers carried phony manifests identifying the goods inside as toys, rattan furniture and other items, Richter said.

Two defendants in New Jersey also were charged with conspiracy to ship $1 million in rocket launchers, automatic rifles and silenced pistols and submachine guns, officials said. The weapons were never delivered, they said.

The investigation began in the FBI's Atlantic City office and included the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Other agencies involved are the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Secret Service and New Jersey state police.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/23/wedding.sting.ap/index.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 7:37 AM
matt@lefande.com

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Program to Curb D.C. Auto Thefts Sputters  

Parked in an area hard hit by auto theft, the cars look like any other in the neighborhood. Sometimes there is trash on the floor, or perhaps a university decal on the rear window. The keys may rest on a seat or dangle from the ignition. Within a few hours or days, a thief takes the lure.

As he slips behind the wheel and motors away, the stolen vehicle sends an electronic tracking signal to police dispatchers. In short order, officers kill the engine by remote control and descend on the suspect. Police say these high-tech "bait cars" save time and resources. In Minneapolis, for example, the successful program is run by an investigator and an unpaid intern.

When D.C. police adopted the program last year, the aim was to help curb one of the worst auto theft rates in the country. But the department's nine bait cars, which cost $324,000, rarely have been deployed because of a legal concern. Unlike other police departments that rely on technology to alert them to any thefts, D.C. police are required to assign officers to monitor their cars at all times.

One officer keeps a car under constant watch, four others are positioned nearby in two cruisers and a sixth is stationed at police headquarters to send the electronic signal to kill the car's engine. In more than a year, D.C. police have made 18 arrests. The bait cars were used three times last month. They are deployed so infrequently that some commanders have turned to using them to secretly record undercover drug deals, police officials said.

Police said the heavy surveillance is required by the department's lawyers, who are concerned about being sued if a bait car hit a bystander. The lawyers were particularly worried because a high percentage of the city's auto thieves are juveniles with little experience behind the wheel, police said.

Agencies regarded as leaders in the field of bait cars, including police departments in Arlington County and Minneapolis, deploy cars without surveillance, sometimes for days or a week at a time. Police officials in both agencies said they felt the benefits of the cars outweighed any potential for harming bystanders, particularly because the cars can be shut down remotely.

"Getting sued is the chance you take when you do something proactive," Minneapolis investigator Wayne Johnson said. "For the most part, it works the way it should. It's a good product."

D.C. police Lt. Brian McAllister, who started the District's bait car initiative last year, said he wanted to create a program similar to those in Arlington and Minneapolis. "But I had to come up with a plan that was acceptable to put vehicles out on the street, liability-wise," he said. "You can't really put a vehicle out there and then wash your hands of it."

Disappointed with the program's effectiveness, McAllister said he would "like to see the agency as a whole revisit the issue of deployment and how we use them."

Bait cars are gaining popularity among police agencies across the country. In the Washington area, Loudoun and Montgomery counties have bait cars. Prince George's and Fairfax county police are obtaining the vehicles, officials said.

At D.C. Council hearings and in community meetings last year, police heralded the cars as an easy way to curtail auto thefts. The cars would lead to iron-clad arrests because video cameras and microphones hidden in the vehicles would record a suspect's image and voice. Police also can remotely lock the cars' doors, helping to prevent the suspect from fleeing.

McAllister, who heads the central auto theft unit of the D.C. police, said he began trying to get the bait cars in 2003 and applied for federal grants. The department obtained $294,000 in grants from the U.S. Justice Department to buy cars and equipment. The nonprofit National Capital Police Fund, created by the nonprofit Federal City Council, donated $30,000, records show.

D.C. police bought the most popular stolen vehicles, including Fords, Jeeps, Chryslers, Dodges and Toyotas.

In May 2004, police deployed their first three bait cars. But when officers put one on the street for the first time and allowed it to be stolen, they lost the car in traffic. Suddenly, the sedan's tracking signal evaporated. It took police two days to find it. An $80 videocassette recorder in its trunk had been stolen.

Technicians eventually fixed and upgraded the cars' technology. Three months later, detectives hit the streets and quickly made 12 arrests -- five of them of juveniles. McAllister said the central auto theft unit was borrowing officers from the city's seven police districts to handle the cars.

"We had a car out almost every night," McAllister said. "It was really working great."

But technological problems cropped up again, he said, and police decided to upgrade the computer software and tracking devices. As the cars were retooled, police deployed them sporadically. By April, grant funding had allowed the department to add six cars to the fleet.

About that time, top police officials removed the bait cars from the centralized auto theft unit and sent them to the seven police districts. They hoped commanders would be able to deploy them more often and react quickly to reports of thefts and community complaints. But commanders and auto theft detectives found that they did not have enough personnel to make the program work. They also found it hard to justify putting six officers on a single car to deter auto thefts when they were battling more serious crimes, they said.

Statistics show the cars were deployed 13 times in June and July. In May, the cars were deployed about 20 times. In April, they were used twice. The most recent arrest in a bait car was more than a month ago, McAllister said. Before that, he said, police last made an arrest in April or May.

The infrequency of deployment frustrates D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large). He said he expected the cars to generate "hundreds of arrests" in their first year.

"I'm disappointed to hear there are so few arrests," Mendelson said. "I've always thought the bait car program was an excellent program. The problem with stolen cars is just enormous."

D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey conceded that the cars were difficult to deploy but said the vehicles were just one tactic to fight auto theft. He noted that car thefts in the District are down 26 percent from last year, with the city recording 3,666 auto thefts through July.

"It's a crime-fighting tool; it's not the end-all," Ramsey said, adding that he likes putting more officers on bait cars because it helps ensure that suspects don't slip away. "We have to find the balance. It's just one of many crimes we investigate."

Arlington police, who in 2002 were the first in the area to use the cars, credit the initiative with helping to reduce the county's auto theft rate 30 percent -- to 493 last year. Forty people have been arrested in the bait cars, and 31 have pleaded guilty in court, police said. Cases against the remaining nine are pending, police said.

Department officials, who declined to say how many bait cars they have, said the cars also deter thefts because suspects don't know what they are stealing. Officers may soon put up signs in some neighborhoods with warnings about bait cars to try to scare off thieves.

"We don't have to spend any additional manpower on watching the cars," said Matt Martin, an Arlington police spokesman. "We don't have to have a team of detectives sitting on it. The cars are always out there. . . . We're very happy with them."

Minneapolis police, who have been using the cars since 1997, said no bystanders have been hurt in accidents and police have made 240 arrests. Auto thefts have dropped 38 percent since they began using their fleet of more than a dozen bait cars.

"We wanted it so it would be cost-effective," said Johnson, the investigator who runs the program. "The days of surveillance for auto theft are over."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/20/AR2005082001136.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 10:24 PM
matt@lefande.com

Ohio jury holds parents liable for son's knife attack  

The parents of a teenager who stabbed a 13-year-old girl must bear most of the responsibility, jurors decided as they awarded $10 million to the injured victim and her family.
Lance and Diane White share 70% of the blame for the 2003 attack on Casey Hilmer, the Hamilton County jury found Friday. Their son Benjamin, who was 17 at the time, bears the rest.

"It sends a message to parents that even if the child is 11 days shy of 18 years old, a parent is liable for the supervision and control of their children and what they entrust them with," said attorney Stanley Chesley, who represented the Hilmer family.

Benjamin White had grabbed Casey as she was jogging in suburban Indian Hills, dragged her to a wooded area and stabbed her in the face and neck.

Attorneys for the Hilmers argued that the Whites knew their son carried a knife. Ohio law says parents can be held liable if they negligently entrust a weapon to their child.

Benjamin White, now 20, was convicted as an adult of attempted murder and felonious assault last year and is serving a 10-year prison term.

Casey has recovered physically but is still afraid to go anywhere alone, her mother, Meg Hilmer, testified in the two-week trial.

The Hilmers sought $25 million in their lawsuit.

The jury awarded them $6.5 million for medical bills and pain and suffering, with Benjamin White's parents expected to pay $4.55 million and Benjamin White the rest. They ordered the son alone to pay $3.5 million more as punishment.

There was no immediate word if the Whites would appeal. Diane White declined to comment Saturday. Lance White owns a sanitation company and is president of the Indian Hill Board of Education.

Attorneys for the Hilmers presented evidence that Benjamin White had a history of aggressive attacks on classmates and drug abuse, according to court records.

The jury foreman, William Freudiger, said jurors held the parents responsible because they found no evidence that they had disciplined their sons.

"I'm not saying they're bad parents, but under the law they have certain responsibilities — and at the time, their son was legally a minor," Freudiger said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-08-20-parentsknifeattack_x.htm?csp=34

posted by Matthew LeFande 9:56 PM
matt@lefande.com

Friday, August 19, 2005

CINDY SHEEHAN: COMMANDER IN GRIEF  

To expiate the pain of losing her firstborn son in the Iraq war, Cindy Sheehan decided to cheer herself up by engaging in Stalinist agitprop outside President Bush's Crawford ranch. It's the strangest method of grieving I've seen since Paul Wellstone's funeral. Someone needs to teach these liberals how to mourn.

Call me old-fashioned, but a grief-stricken war mother shouldn't have her own full-time PR flack. After your third profile on "Entertainment Tonight," you're no longer a grieving mom; you're a C-list celebrity trolling for a book deal or a reality show.

We're sorry about Ms. Sheehan's son, but the entire nation was attacked on 9/11. This isn't about her personal loss. America has been under relentless attack from Islamic terrorists for 20 years, culminating in a devastating attack on U.S. soil on 9/11. It's not going to stop unless we fight back, annihilate Muslim fanatics, destroy their bases, eliminate their sponsors and end all their hope. A lot more mothers will be grieving if our military policy is: No one gets hurt!

Fortunately, the Constitution vests authority to make foreign policy with the president of the United States, not with this week's sad story. But liberals think that since they have been able to produce a grieving mother, the commander in chief should step aside and let Cindy Sheehan make foreign policy for the nation. As Maureen Dowd said, it's "inhumane" for Bush not "to understand that the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute."

I'm not sure what "moral authority" is supposed to mean in that sentence, but if it has anything to do with Cindy Sheehan dictating America's foreign policy, then no, it is not "absolute." It's not even conditional, provisional, fleeting, theoretical or ephemeral.

The logical, intellectual and ethical shortcomings of such a statement are staggering. If one dead son means no one can win an argument with you, how about two dead sons? What if the person arguing with you is a mother who also lost a son in Iraq and she's pro-war? Do we decide the winner with a coin toss? Or do we see if there's a woman out there who lost two children in Iraq and see what she thinks about the war?

Dowd's "absolute" moral authority column demonstrates, once again, what can happen when liberals start tossing around terms they don't understand like "absolute" and "moral." It seems that the inspiration for Dowd's column was also absolute. On the rocks.

Liberals demand that we listen with rapt attention to Sheehan, but she has nothing new to say about the war. At least nothing we haven't heard from Michael Moore since approximately 11 a.m., Sept. 11, 2001. It's a neocon war; we're fighting for Israel; it's a war for oil; Bush lied, kids died; there is no connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. Turn on MSNBC's "Hardball" and you can hear it right now. At this point, Cindy Sheehan is like a touring company of Air America radio: Same old script and it's not even the original cast.

These arguments didn't persuade Hillary Clinton or John McCain to vote against the war. They didn't persuade Democratic primary voters, who unceremoniously dumped anti-war candidate Howard Dean in favor of John Kerry, who voted for the war before he voted against it. They certainly didn't persuade a majority of American voters who re-upped George Bush's tenure as the nation's commander in chief last November.

But now liberals demand that we listen to the same old arguments all over again, not because Sheehan has any new insights, but because she has the ability to repel dissent by citing her grief.

On the bright side, Sheehan shows us what Democrats would say if they thought they were immunized from disagreement. Sheehan has called President Bush "that filth-spewer and warmonger." She says "America has been killing people on this continent since it was started" and "the killing has gone on unabated for over 200 years." She calls the U.S. government a "morally repugnant system" and says, "This country is not worth dying for." I have a feeling every time this gal opens her trap, Michael Moore gets a residuals check.

Evidently, however, there are some things worth killing for. Sheehan recently said she only seemed calm "because if I started hitting something, I wouldn't stop 'til it was dead." It's a wonder Bush won't meet with her.


http://www.anncoulter.org/cgi-local/printer_friendly.cgi?article=71

posted by Matthew LeFande 5:29 PM
matt@lefande.com

Police Scramble to Keep Up With Accelerating Gas Prices  

A police officer's Ford Crown Victoria often doubles as an office.

An office that has to be heated in the winter, air-conditioned in the summer and go from zero to 60 in seconds. All that takes gas.

Virginia state troopers burn about 200,000 gallons in their cruisers each month. Sheriff's deputies in one Southern Maryland county drive more than 430,000 miles a month, and state police officers there routinely use a tank of gasoline on every eight-hour shift.

As fuel prices rise steeply across the nation, the region's police departments are bracing to blow their budgets and, in some cases, are considering strategies to conserve.

Montgomery County has discussed reviving a program from a decade ago that required police officers to park, turn off their cars and patrol by foot for 10 minutes each hour.

Since last year, the Maryland State Police has discouraged troopers from idling when monitoring a closed road and have encouraged them to use radar from a parked car, instead of cruising, to catch speeders.

"One thing's for sure: We can't stop patrolling," said Sgt. Thornnie Rouse, a spokesman for the Maryland State Police.

Unlike some workers who can choose to ride the Metro or a bus to the office when gasoline prices climb, a police officer's car is critical to the job.

"They don't have a desk at a police station. They live and work in their cruiser," said Nick Tucci , director of the police management and budget division in Montgomery. "That's their lifeline."

Patrol officers write reports, search criminal databases and send e-mails from computers in their cars. Those devices, in addition to radios and emergency lights, can run on batteries when the engine is turned off.

But the battery power lasts only so long. Police said officers prefer to idle, and that uses gas -- lots of it.

The average price of a gallon of regular gas in the United States was $2.59 yesterday, up 39 percent from a year ago, when the average was $1.87. In the Washington region, the average price was up to $2.65 -- the highest price since AAA began recording such numbers in 1974. The agency provides prices in its daily fuel report.

City and county governments, which typically purchase the fuel for the region's police cruisers, pay less. For the past 20 years, 15 to 20 jurisdictions have joined to purchase fuel at a discount through the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

But those prices, too, have increased. On Aug. 1, the cooperative's price was $1.7459 a gallon. The price through Sept. 4 is $2.0016, said Carl Kalish, who coordinates the program.

In Virginia, nearly 1,900 state troopers have vehicles assigned to them, and at any given time, hundreds are patrolling the commonwealth's interstates and highways. Each year, they drive a total of about 40.8 million miles -- or about the equivalent of 171 trips to the moon -- and use about 200,000 gallons a month, said Col. Steve Flaherty, Virginia State Police superintendent.

At today's high prices, he said, that translates to an estimated $1.2 million above the annual fuel budget.

"It's a lot of money, a lot more than we anticipated," he said, adding that the agency had anticipated that it would overspend its projected budget of $3.7 million, though not by so much.

Like the counties, the state uses it own pumps maintained by contractors. The average price per gallon this week was $2.05. Still, as costly as fuel has become, Flaherty said, commanders have not issued instructions to the troopers to conserve fuel.

"The last thing we would ever do is cut patrols," he said in a phone interview from Richmond.

In Prince William County, too, the figures reveal a situation far more expensive than police anticipated. In July 2004, the county police department's 392 vehicles consumed about $38,245 worth of gas. Last month, the price increased by at least 20 percent.

"Our officers are in their cruisers all day, every day," said Sgt. Kim Chinn, a police spokeswoman. "They drive about 4.1 million miles a year. It's going to cost a lot."

Although the steep increase in gas prices has surprised many departments, officials from several Northern Virginia jurisdictions agreed that it has had little effect on their mandates. They respond to calls regardless of how much it costs, they said.

That sentiment was echoed across the region. Lt. Tom Chase of the Frederick police force said past shortfalls have not "prohibited us from providing our level of service." After budgeting $121,400 last year, the department spent $179,345 on about 95,000 gallons of fuel for 136 vehicles. This year's budget is $160,000.

Concerns about rising prices were less pronounced in the District, where police beats cover much less territory. D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said he has not considered cutting cruiser patrols or asking officers to change their routines.

D.C. police get their gasoline at a discount through the Defense Energy Supply Center, which sold unleaded fuel to the District on Aug. 15 for $2.0347 a gallon, said Janis Bolt, spokeswoman for the city's Office of Contracting and Procurement.

In the outer suburbs, Charles County's 240 sheriff's deputies were driving more miles and spending more money on gas even before the recent price increases.

For the fiscal year ending June 2004, Charles spent $373,142 to patrol 5.1 million miles. Through June 2005, the county spent $463,799 for deputies to drive 5.2 million miles. This year, the sheriff's department has budgeted $453,600.

"Obviously, that's not going to get us there," Captain Joe Montminy said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801828.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 6:09 AM
matt@lefande.com

Radar Gun Captures Controversy in D.C.  

Wendell Cunningham worried about cars hitting children or elderly residents in his Southeast Washington neighborhood, so the D.C. police officer decided to hit the streets with a radar gun -- on his own time.

He ticketed away for nearly two years, and then one morning, his off-duty work led him straight back to the office -- in pursuit of a top commander.

That was April 19. Cunningham was writing traffic tickets along a busy stretch of Branch Avenue SE near his home in Hillcrest about 6:30 a.m. when he spotted a dark-blue car hurtling down the street. His radar gun showed it doing 46 mph in a 25-mph zone.

So he stepped into traffic and motioned for the driver to pull over. Instead of stopping, the Ford Crown Victoria swung into the other lane and passed; emergency lights began to flash from the car's grill, and a siren sounded.

Through the car's tinted windows, Cunningham recognized Assistant Chief Willie Dandridge, a department veteran who supervises patrol operations east of the Anacostia River.

Cunningham followed Dandridge to the nearby office, where Dandridge refused to turn over his identification. Cunningham reported the incident to internal affairs.

Four months later, the incident in the 2400 block of Branch Avenue SE has resulted in a 15-page internal report.

Internal affairs officials recommended that Dandridge be cited for conduct unbecoming an officer because he did not stop or turn over his identification. "Assistant Chief Dandridge conducted himself in a manner that would not be tolerated by any other member of this agency or any citizen driving by a radar checkpoint," the internal affairs report concluded.

Dandridge, 42, said in an interview that he regretted not stopping but felt it wasn't safe to do so. There was not enough room on Branch Avenue, and two cars were already on the side of the road, he said.

On the other hand, he said: "In hindsight, I know I should have stopped. . . . I am responsible for my actions."

He is the second top commander in recent months to be cited for conduct during a traffic incident. The D.C. Office of Police Complaints, an independent city agency, found last month that Assistant Chief Brian Jordan harassed a motorist and abused his authority in 2003, when he was accused of giving the motorist a traffic citation after a brief altercation. Jordan, who supervises patrol operations in the 1st and 5th districts, has denied any wrongdoing.

A decision about discipline for Jordan has not been made. What punishment Dandridge could face has not been revealed.

Cunningham, 40, who works for the department's emergency response team, last month received a letter of prejudice in the case, a mild form of official rebuke, for not completing the proper paperwork for his radar gun.

He was also cited for not having the explicit permission of supervisors to work off duty at that spot, a requirement under department guidelines, the internal affairs report states.

Cunningham disputes the report's findings, saying that the proper radar forms were not available and that commanders knew what he was doing. He had ticketed Dandridge in that same spot a year earlier, records show. The officer has filed a grievance, saying he is being punished for helping his community.

Some neighbors said Cunningham has made a difference in the area.

"I think we need more officers like him," said Jeanus Parks, 76. "He has made his presence felt here. For an officer to extend himself like that, it's commendable."

Union leaders said Cunningham's letter of prejudice would stop similar off-duty work.

Officers "are afraid to come out and take that extra step," said Sgt. Gregory I. Greene, chairman of the D.C. police labor committee of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 1.

During a recent afternoon rush hour, Cunningham returned to Branch Avenue to catch speeders on his own time. He clocked one driver going 45 mph and another going 47 mph in a 25-mph zone. Then he received a page to call a commander. The supervisor told Cunningham to stop, because someone had complained that he was slowing traffic.

After hanging up his cellular phone, Cunningham cracked a smile and looked at Branch Avenue, where a single car was traveling 42 mph, according to the radar gun.

"I guess they don't want me giving another ticket to an assistant chief at rush hour," he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801850.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 6:03 AM
matt@lefande.com

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Hooters visit with altered ID leads to felony charge  

He just wanted a beer. Problem was, Darin Lee Perry wasn't old enough, prosecutors say. On Wednesday, he was sitting in Bexar County Jail, waiting for someone to post his $20,000 bond.

Perry's alleged crime? Troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety accused him of changing the birth date on his provisional driver's license from 1986 to 1981. Under the law, it's called tampering with a government record.

The 19-year-old was charged with the second-degree felony because, an affidavit states, his intent was to defraud the Hooters at Wurzbach and Fredericksburg roads out of a beer. Punishment could be up to 20 years in prison.

It may sound harsh, but a lieutenant with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said this case reflects the seriousness and consequences of minors trying to illegally obtain alcohol.

Lt. Christina Guerra said if minors considered the consequences first, they would realize the beer isn't worth it.

"They're jeopardizing their whole future," she said. "It's a serious charge."

First Assistant District Attorney Michael Bernard acknowledged that a felony charge against a teen who uses an altered ID to buy beer is unusual. The case could have been filed as a Class B misdemeanor, which would've meant a maximum jail term of 180 days and up to a $2,000 fine.

"There may be more to it," Bernard said, declining to comment further on the case.

Perry visited the Northwest Side Hooters on May 19 with three friends, according to the affidavit. Perry is accused of asking a waitress for a beer and producing a license that had been altered.

The waitress kept the license and a manager asked Perry to leave the restaurant, according to the affidavit.

That could have been the end of it but an off-duty DPS trooper who coincidentally was sitting at an adjacent table asked the waitress for the confiscated ID.

Investigators determined the "6" on Perry's year of birth and the "1" on the year of expiration had been cut out and swapped, the affidavit stated.

Perry was arrested Tuesday on a warrant, nearly three months after the Hooters visit.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA081805.2B.underage_drinker.17bea2f3.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:14 AM
matt@lefande.com

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

"You're drunk. You're driving. You're illegal. You're deported. Period."  

A tragic death might lead to tougher immigration laws in North Carolina.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., introduced the Scott Gardner Act at a news conference Monday. It is named after the teacher who was fatally struck by a drunken driver on July 16.

“After the wreck, it was discovered that the drunk driver was also an illegal alien with five prior DWI convictions in North Carolina and in other states," Myrick said.

Myrick said Gardner’s death shows that there are loopholes in the system.

“The drunk driver should have been deported," she said with Gardner's mother at her side.

The Scott Gardner Act would require local law enforcement groups to file every immigration matter into an FBI database. It would also require them to routinely check up with a U.S. Customs support center.

“If a cop pulls over a traffic violation, he can call in to this database and find the person's legal status," Myrick said. "Yet I’ve learned that few state and local law enforcement agencies use the database or even know about it.”

Myrick is also demanding that DWI be a deportable offense.

“No more excuses. No more endless appeals," she said. "You're drunk. You're driving. You're illegal. You're deported. Period."

http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/local_news/union/?SecID=11&ArID=100152

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:37 AM
matt@lefande.com

Jihadist Forum Member Advocates a Chemical Weapon Attack on Metro  

A member of a password-protected al-Qaeda affiliated message board provided the map of the Washington Metro subway system on August 11, 2005, in addition to advocating an attack with chemical weapons upon this system to achieve “amazing results.” The author states that executing attacks within Saudi Arabia is “probably not effective,” so to ensure a “true effect in the world” attacks must be launched upon American soil with similar impact to that “done by Mohammad Atta.”

http://www.siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID=publications81905&Category=publications&Subcategory=0

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:06 AM
matt@lefande.com

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

'Wash Post' Cuts Ties to Pentagon Event After Protests  

The Washington Post announced tonight that it will cease its co-sponsorship of the Pentagon-organized Freedom Walk next month. The paper's involvement had drawn heat from within and outside the paper, with a guild committee today calling for the link to end.

The newspaper told the Department of Defense that it was pulling back on its offer of free ads for the event -- a march up the mall ending with a concert by pro-war country singer Clint Black.

"As it appears that this event could become politicized, The Post has decided to honor the Washington area victims of 9/11 by making a contribution directly to the Pentagon Memorial Fund," said Eric Grant, a Post spokesman. "It is The Post's practice to avoid activities that might lead readers to question the objectivity of The Post's news coverage."

Apparently the Post's "objectivity" is not impaired by perpetuating its blatantly liberal, pro-DNC propaganda machine.

http://209.11.49.220/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001015384

posted by Matthew LeFande 12:23 PM
matt@lefande.com

Monday, August 15, 2005

Troopers intercede in DUI for 'captain,' get tapped for promotion  

Two Tennessee Highway Patrol sergeants whose testimony helped an "honorary captain" get his drunken-driving case dismissed in May were recommended for promotion on Thursday, just three days after Gov. Phil Bredesen called a halt to the honorary program.

Both troopers listed members of the drunken-driving suspect's influential West Tennessee family as job references on their applications for promotions.

Safety Department Commissioner Fred Phillips picked the two sergeants for promotion to lieutenant. One of them was selected even though he scored worse than four other applicants who were not selected for promotion.

The promotion recommendations came after Bredesen ordered the honorary captains program halted after a story in The Tennessean. The newspaper revealed that Highway Patrol leadership had been issuing badges and official-looking photo IDs to campaign donors, political insiders and friends of the powerful. Critics called the honorary badges get-out-of-jail-free cards for the privileged.

The DUI case was dismissed on May 27 after Troopers Tansil Phillips and Tim Holloway testified on behalf of honorary captain Ricky J. McWilliams of Halls, Tenn. McWilliams is the grandson of longtime Democratic insider Gladys Crain, chairwoman of Bredesen's 2002 campaign in Lauderdale County.

A local district attorney later resurrected the case, and a grand jury indicted McWilliams in June after hearing the evidence.

The sergeants' ties to McWilliams' family members and the timing of their promotion recommendations after their testimony raise questions about the influence of those who carry badges and the integrity of the state's promotion system.

"This particular scenario raises the appearance that there are individuals that can take advantage of these connections," said Stefanie Lindquist, a Vanderbilt University political science and law professor. "This is the type of thing that damages the criminal justice system."

Ricky McWilliams was driving his white truck in Lauderdale County late on the evening of Jan. 14. Trooper Michael Arguello spotted him swerving and flashed his blue lights, according to a Highway Patrol incident report.

Crain's grandson appears to have been under the impression that the honorary ID and badge would get him out of the ticket.

He flashed his honorary captain's badge, which had been signed and issued by Commissioner Phillips, at Arguello, according to the report, and said: "I'm an officer just like you. I'm a trooper too. I've got a badge just like yours, you can't treat me like this, I will tell the colonel on you."

Arguello ticketed McWilliams anyway and his blood-alcohol test registered a 0.16 — twice the legal limit, according to court testimony.

In March and April, Sgts. Phillips and Holloway filed applications for promotions to lieutenant, records show.

On his March 19 application, Phillips listed as his references Gladys Crain's husband, Bernice E. Crain, along with John M. Lannom, an attorney in nearby Dyer County, who is active in Democratic politics.
On April 11, Holloway filled out his lieutenant's application, according to state records. His references were Gladys Crain and her grandson, Monty McWilliams, who is Ricky McWilliams brother. Monty also would testify on behalf of his brother at the May 27 DUI hearing.

On April 14, both Sgt. Phillips and Sgt. Holloway were summoned by the defense to testify on behalf of Ricky McWilliams in his DUI case, scheduled for a hearing in Lauderdale County General Sessions Court on May 27, according to court records. Neither Phillips nor Holloway was at the scene when the stop and arrest were made, according to the incident report.

McWilliams' attorney called Sgt. Phillips and Sgt. Holloway to refute Arguello's testimony. The main focus of the defense was to show that the stop was made on private property, and thus the ticket Arguello issued was improper, according a tape of the hearing.

Monty McWilliams testified that his family owned the private land near where the stop was made.

Sgt. Phillips testified on behalf of McWilliams, countering Arguello's testimony. Phillips said he grew up in the area and had visited the property in his youth, and he knew it was private because he had been asked to leave once.

When McWilliams' defense attorney asked Phillips whether the Highway Patrol has authority to arrest on anything other than public roads or highways, Phillips said:

"No, on private property, the county would be called."

State law allows for arrests on DUI charges to occur on public roads or "any shopping center, trailer park or any apartment house complex, or any other premises which is generally frequented by the public at large," according to Tennessee Code Annotated 55-10-401.

Holloway also testified at the hearing on behalf of McWilliams. Holloway is records keeper for the Memphis district of the Highway Patrol, which includes Lauderdale County. He said the area where the stop was made had no history of arrests.

After the testimony, Judge Lyman Ingram dismissed the case at the end of the hearing. Just over a week later, on June 6, a grand jury indicted McWilliams for DUI.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050814/NEWS0201/508140397/1009/NEWS02

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:35 AM
matt@lefande.com

Besieged homeowner sticks it out  

It's been nearly six months since Oakland homeowner Patrick McCullough faced down a group of young men outside his home, wounding one of them during a scuffle, and he is still dealing with the fallout.

The latest blow came last week when McCullough read a newspaper article that said his insurance company had agreed to pay $55,000 to settle a claim brought by the family of Melvin McHenry, the 16-year-old shot in the arm during the struggle outside McCullough's home on 59th Street.

McCullough said he almost choked on his blueberry muffin when he read the article.

"We were assured that they would keep us informed and that they weren't going to settle,'' said McCullough, who was disappointed with the payout.

"There was no phone call, no letter, and this had apparently been in the works for some time because they (the insurance company) had already gone through a mediation process,'' he added.

McCullough understands that settling a nuisance claim is much cheaper than a full-blown courtroom trial, but it still irks him that his insurers folded their hand and paid the family just to go away.

The payout stems from a Feb. 18 incident when about 15 young men surrounded McCullough and shouted "snitch" and other taunts as he walked from his front door to his driveway. Someone hit him with a branch, and others threw punches. McCullough told police he had seen McHenry reach for a gun, so he drew his own gun and shot his would-be assailant in the arm.

The teenage shooting victim and his family moved from 59th Street last month, reportedly to Fremont. McCullough saw the moving van outside their home and said he was hoping they were off to Oklahoma or other points far, far away from his neighborhood.

But even with McHenry out of the picture, McCullough remains vigilant in his watch over his home and the neighborhood -- and he sees more than ever now.

After the incident, which prompted demonstrations from Uhuru House, a longtime advocate for the black community, the Oakland Police Department outfitted his home with a high-tech surveillance camera that sweeps the neighborhood constantly. The machine is fitted with a zoom lens and can be accessed by local law enforcement as easily as signing onto the Internet. It's a 24-7-365 eye in the sky.

But for some of the 50 or so young men who pass through the neighborhood from time to time, it's a constant reminder that there is at least one guy in this neighborhood who will not allow anti-social behavior on his watch.

The response from some of McCullough's enemies has been to stand across the street, directly in front of the camera, and puff on marijuana joints or raise up a middle finger at Big Brother.

And his countermeasures only support the claims that he is an agent of the Police Department, said Bakari Olatunji, the president of Uhuru House, whose leaders and supporters have visited 59th Street several times in recent months to circulate flyers underscoring that point.

"Bush said that everybody who ain't with the U.S. is against us, and I see it the same way: If he's (McCullough) not working with the community, then he's an agent of the state,'' Olatunji said.

To further define Olatunji's position, he advocates for community solutions to community problems without police intervention -- ever.

I don't know whether that means that anyone who calls the police to report criminal behavior is an agent of the Man, but by that definition McCullough would qualify.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/15/BAGDHE7T5D1.DTL

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:16 AM
matt@lefande.com

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Able Danger disabled  

THE report of the 9/11 commission, once a best seller and hailed by the news media as the definitive word on the subject, must now be moved to the fiction shelves.

The commission concluded, you'll recall, that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon couldn't have been prevented, and that if there was negligence, it was as much the fault of the Bush Administration (for moving slowly on the recommendations of Clinton counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke) as of the Clinton administration.

Able Danger has changed all of that.

Able Danger was a military intelligence unit set up by Special Operations Command in 1999. A year before the 9/11 attacks, Able Danger identified hijack leader Mohammed Atta and the other members of his cell. But Clinton administration officials stopped them - three times - from sharing this information with the FBI.

The problem was the order Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick made forbidding intelligence operatives from sharing information with criminal investigators.

"They were stopped because the lawyers at that time in 2000 told them Mohammed Atta had a green card" - he didn't - "and they could not go after someone with a green card," said Rep. Curt Weldon, the Pennsylvania Republican who brought the existence of Able Danger to light.

The military spooks knew only that Atta and his confederates had links to al-Qaeda. They hadn't unearthed their mission. But if the FBI had kept tabs on them (a big if, given the nature of the FBI at the time), 9/11 almost certainly could have been prevented.

What may be a bigger scandal is that the staff of the 9/11 Commission knew of Able Danger and what it had found, but made no mention of it in its report. This is as if the commission that investigated the attack on Pearl Harbor had written its final report without mentioning the Japanese.

Mr. Weldon unveiled Able Danger in a speech on the House floor June 27, but his remarks didn't attract attention until the New York Times reported on them Tuesday.

When the story broke, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, a Democrat from Indiana, co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission, at first denied the commission had ever been informed of what Able Danger had found, and took a swipe at Mr. Weldon's credibility:

"The Sept. 11th Commission did not learn of any U.S. government knowledge prior to 9/11 of the surveillance of Mohammed Atta or his cell," Mr. Hamilton said. "Had we learned of it obviously it would have been a major focus of our investigation."

Mr. Hamilton changed his tune after the New York Times reported Thursday, and the Associated Press confirmed, that commission staff had been briefed on Able Danger in October, 2003, and again in July, 2004.

It was in October, 2003, that Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger stole classified documents from the National Archives and destroyed some. Berger allegedly was studying documents in the archives to help prepare Clinton officials to testify before the 9/11 Commission. Was he removing references to Able Danger? Someone should ask him before he is sentenced next month.

After having first denied that staff had been briefed on Able Danger, commission spokesman Al Felzenberg said no reference was made to it in the final report because "it was not consistent with what the commission knew about Atta's whereabouts before the attacks," the AP reported.

The only dispute over Atta's whereabouts is whether he was in Prague on April 9, 2001, to meet with Samir al Ani, an Iraqi intelligence officer. Czech intelligence insists he was. Able Danger, apparently, had information supporting the Czechs.

The CIA, and the 9/11 Commission, say Atta wasn't in Prague April 9, 2001, because his cell phone was used in Florida that day. But there is no evidence of who used the phone. Atta could have lent it to a confederate. (It wouldn't have worked in Europe anyway.)

But acknowledging that possibility would leave open the likelihood that Saddam's regime was involved in, or at least had foreknowledge of, the 9/11 attacks. And that would have been as uncomfortable for Democrats as the revelation that 9/11 could have been prevented if it hadn't been for the Clinton administration's wall of separation.

The 9/11 commission wrote history as it wanted it to be, not as it was. The real history of what happened that terrible September day has yet to be written.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050813/COLUMNIST14/508130375/-1/NEWS28

posted by Matthew LeFande 6:53 PM
matt@lefande.com

Friday, August 12, 2005

Drunk crashes into detox centre  

32-year-old woman who was caught driving with more than five times the legal limit of alcohol in her system came close to getting help when she smashed her van into the fence of a Kingston detox centre.

Police said the Trenton woman was driving a U-Haul van along Brock Street near Sydenham around 7 p.m. Wednesday, when she struck the fence of the Kingston Detoxification Centre.

The 24-hour centre is run by Hotel Dieu Hospital and provides non-

medical treatment for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.

A passerby spotted the woman trying to back up and leave the scene and called police with her licence plate number.

By the time police arrived, the woman was driving away along Sydenham Street.

Officers stopped the van around the corner from the detox centre and brought the woman to the police station for a breath test.

The woman, who police said had a slight build, registered nearly five times the legal limit.

Kingston Police spokesman Mike Weaver said the woman appeared intoxicated, but was coherent.

So police were shocked when she registered such a high blood-alcohol level. They gave her a second reading and she registered even higher, Weaver said.

“There was no indication she was that drunk,” he said.

Her van was impounded and police let the woman sleep off the effects of her drinking.

The woman’s licence was suspended for 90 days and police expect to charge her with impaired driving and driving with more than 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.

She’s to appear in court next month.

It’s rare for an impaired driver to register such a high blood alcohol level.

Staff Sgt. Rick Carter, a veteran police officer and former breath technician, said he remembered only one other person who registered such a high reading, a male trucker involved in a fatal collision on Highway 401.

The number of drinks a person has to consume to develop such a high blood-alcohol level varies based on gender and weight, but a typical 120-pound woman would have to consume somewhere around 10 pints of beer in the space of an hour to register five times the legal limit.

http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=121446&catname=Local+News&classif=News+Alert

posted by Matthew LeFande 3:48 PM
matt@lefande.com

Oklahoma man says he forgot he had pipe bomb  

An Oklahoma man told federal investigators he forgot a pipe bomb he built for fun was in his luggage when tried to board an airplane, according to court documents released Thursday.

Charles Alfred Dreyling Jr., 24, was charged Thursday with trying to carry the bomb aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Oklahoma City to Atlanta Wednesday, according to the documents.

Dreyling was released Thursday on $10,000 bail. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

FBI agents and Oklahoma City police officers said the pipe bomb contained a metal cartridge filled with gunpowder attached to a detonator made from model rocket parts, according to an affidavit filed by the FBI.

Dreyling, a student at the University of Oklahoma, could have detonated the bomb using his cell phone battery, according to the affidavit.

Dreyling told investigators he made bombs for recreation and had recently set off several devices with friends in rural Oklahoma, according to the affidavit.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/reuters08-10-223503.asp?t=renew&vts=81220050436

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:43 AM
matt@lefande.com

Drunk is the universal language.  

With video goodness.

http://www.collegehumor.com/movies/1599728

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:05 AM
matt@lefande.com

Fallen Officer's Zeal Will Roll On  

D.C. police officer James C. McBride was so excited about using a bicycle on patrol that he recently purchased a $500 mountain bike to practice the finer skills of balancing and racing down stairs after suspects.

With McBride's sudden death this week, his parents plan to donate the bike to the department so an eager officer can practice the same skills.

"He would have wanted it that way," said Kenneth J. McBride, the officer's father, who lives in Massachusetts.

The 25-year-old officer died Wednesday, a day after collapsing during bicycle training at the police academy in Southwest Washington. Doctors and police officials believe that McBride, a highly acclaimed officer who joined the force two years ago, died of hyponatremia, a sodium imbalance caused by drinking excessive amounts. Police are awaiting results of an autopsy.

McBride was taking a week-long course to prepare for bicycle patrols and may have had as much as three gallons of water during and after a 12-mile training ride. He later vomited, collapsed and suffered apparent seizures.

Police consider McBride to have died in the line of duty. He will receive full police honors during his funeral, which is scheduled for 11 a.m. tomorrow at All Souls Church, 2835 16th St. NW. McBride was engaged and lived in Northwest Washington.

McBride worked in the 1st District and concentrated his patrols in Sursum Corda, one of the city's most crime-ridden public housing complexes. He was recently named the district's rookie of the year for 2004.

"A lot of our officers are devastated," 1st District Cmdr. Thomas McGuire said. "He was a good officer. He was liked by his peers."

Ken McBride said his son wanted to use the bike to make more arrests and thwart drug dealers. "He wanted to cover more ground and make more cases," he said. "He was a man of action."

James McBride, known by family members as Craig, grew up in a strict home near Boston. He and his younger brother were not allowed to watch television during the week, and he became a voracious reader of history and politics, his father said.

"He couldn't walk through the house without a book," his father said. "He was always bumping into things."

McBride graduated from American University in 2002 with a degree in political science. During college, he had worked part time at the District's Emergency Management Agency. He eventually became a full-time staff employee.

He had admired the D.C. police officers he met through his job and began thinking about joining the force. Several close friends and family members had joined police departments, his father said.

His father, chief of staff for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, encouraged him to apply.

"He said, 'Dad, I don't want to be at an office the rest of my life,' " Ken McBride said. "He felt committed. He liked helping people."

Ken McBride said that if his son's death is confirmed as a case of hyponatremia, he plans to seek out the family of a Boston Marathon runner who died of the condition in 2002. "Maybe between the two of us we can do something" about the problem, he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/11/AR2005081101924.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 7:28 AM
matt@lefande.com

Jordan Harassed Driver, Agency Rules  

A top D.C. police commander harassed a motorist during a traffic stop in 2003 and improperly used his "professional authority" to issue a ticket, a city agency that investigates citizen complaints against officers has concluded.

Although the agency's decision did not name the commander, police and city officials identified him as Assistant Chief Brian Jordan, 45, who oversees patrol operations in the 1st and 5th police districts. In an interview yesterday, Jordan denied any wrongdoing. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said an internal review is underway.

The findings by the D.C. Office of Police Complaints, an independent agency, stem from a January 2003 incident involving Jordan and an unidentified motorist. The motorist, a nurse at Georgetown University Hospital, alleged that Jordan tried to force her out of an exit lane on New York Avenue NE, the report states.

The woman said that Jordan, who was trying to move into the lane, pointed a finger at her and stated, "Let me in there or I'll throw you in jail." The woman apparently did not realize that Jordan was an officer because he was off-duty and was not in uniform and was driving an unmarked police cruiser, the report states. After exchanging more words, the woman called 911 and drove toward a parked patrol car.

Jordan followed the woman, approached the officers in the patrol car and borrowed a ticket book from them. He then cited her for failing to yield the right of way.

The Office of Police Complaints concluded that the incident amounted to harassment, writing that Jordan "used his professional authority to respond to a personal affront." The agency also found that Jordan broke departmental rules by making a traffic stop out of uniform and in an unmarked car.

The findings were forwarded to police last month. Under D.C. law, Ramsey must impose some form of discipline or ask the complaints office for further review. No disciplinary action has yet been taken, Ramsey said.

Jordan, who joined the department in 1983, said he was being targeted by the complaint office because he is a high-ranking officer. "I think it became a situation where they felt they had a big fish," he said.

The woman eventually paid the ticket, said Jordan, who called the payment an admission of guilt.

"A violation in your presence is not a personal affront," Jordan said. "It's called taking police action."

Philip K. Eure, executive director of the complaints office, said "the decision shows that the system works."

Sgt. Gregory I. Greene, chairman of the D.C. police labor committee for Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 1, said a rank-and-file officer would be severely punished in a similar instance. "They should take this seriously," Greene said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/11/AR2005081101922.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 7:26 AM
matt@lefande.com

Greyhound crash from attack on driver prompts $8 million verdict  

A Saginaw Michigan woman won an eight million-dollar verdict in a lawsuit stemming from a fatal crash that followed an attack on a Greyhound bus driver.

A federal jury in Tennessee ordered Greyhound Lines to pay the compensatory damages to 59-year-old Sharon Surles.

The bus crashed in October-2001 after a passenger slashed the driver's throat with a box cutter. Six passengers, including the attacker, were killed in the crash on Interstate-24 between Nashville and Chattanooga.

A seventh died later at a hospital and 34 others on board were injured.

Surles was traveling to visit relatives in Atlanta. Her lawyer says the injuries she suffered in the crash left her unable to walk.

http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=3712993

posted by Matthew LeFande 7:10 AM
matt@lefande.com

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Va. judge declares Va. drunken driving laws unconstitutional  

A Fairfax County judge has ruled that key components of Virginia's drunken driving laws are unconstitutional, citing an obscure, decades-old U.S. Supreme Court decision that could prompt similar challenges nationwide.

Virginia's law is unconstitutional because it presumes that an individual with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or higher is intoxicated, denying a defendant's right to a presumption of innocence, Judge Ian O'Flaherty ruled in dismissing charges against at least two alleged drunken drivers last month.

As a district judge, O'Flaherty's rulings do not establish any formal precedent, but word of the constitutional argument is spreading quickly among the defense bar. Every state has similar presumptions about intoxication at a 0.08 blood alcohol level, so defense lawyers across the nation are likely to make similar arguments.

"I am sure there will be lawyers out in the field making similar arguments tomorrow," Steven Oberman, chairman of the DUI defense committee at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Corinne Magee, a McLean defense lawyer who first successfully argued the issue to O'Flaherty, said O'Flaherty's ruling is based on a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court case called Francis v. Franklin, which deals with prosecutors' obligation to prove all elements of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

Magee said she came across the Francis case doing research on another case and realized it might apply to Virginia's drunken driving laws.

"Frankly, I was surprised" that the judge dismissed the case based on her constitutional arguments, Magee said Thursday. "But I think Judge O'Flaherty's ruling is based on a very solid reading of this case."

She said Virginia's law is problematic not just because of the presumption of intoxication at 0.08, but also a presumption in the law that the blood-alcohol level at the time the test is taken is equal to the level at the time of the offense, even if the test occurs hours after police make a stop. Magee said a person's blood alcohol level can fluctuate up or down depending on when a person had their last drink and how their body metabolizes alcohol.

Prosecutors are now taking steps to avoid O'Flaherty on all drunken driving cases, withdrawing cases assigned to him and instead obtaining indictments that send the cases directly to Circuit Court. Prosecutors cannot appeal cases dismissed by a district court judge, but could appeal if a circuit judge makes a similar ruling.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VA_DWI_LAWS_VAOL-?SITE=VANOV&SECTION=STATE

posted by Matthew LeFande 9:11 PM
matt@lefande.com

Ron Lane, Professional Mugging Victim and Human Punching Bag.  

He's been mugged 75 times working undercover. Video.

http://www.hugi.is/hahradi/bigboxes.php?box_id=51208&f_id=1400

posted by Matthew LeFande 11:44 AM
matt@lefande.com

District Officer Dies After Bike Ride  

A highly honored 25-year-old D.C. police officer died yesterday after he apparently drank too much water Tuesday while training to use a bicycle on patrol, police officials said.

Doctors believe that hyponatremia, a sodium imbalance caused by drinking excessive amounts of fluid, most likely caused or contributed to the death of Officer James C. McBride, police officials said. McBride consumed as much as three gallons of water during and after the 12-mile training ride Tuesday morning, police said.

The doctors "did mention that he had consumed an awful lot of water," said D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, adding that authorities are awaiting autopsy results. "They are saying that is a possibility it might have contributed. . . . This is something that is really unusual. We are usually concerned about dehydration as opposed to people consuming too much water."

Hyponatremia, an abnormally low salt concentration in the blood, occurs when a person loses a large amount of sodium or consumes a large amount of water. Hyponatremia in athletes is almost always caused by drinking too much water.

As the blood becomes increasingly diluted, water moves out of the bloodstream and into cells, which swell. The swelling of the brain is responsible for the symptoms of severe hyponatremia -- nausea, confusion, seizures and coma. If pressure inside the skull increases enough, the base of the brain is squeezed downward through where connects it to the spinal cord, causing death.

McBride, who joined the force two years ago, was named the 1st Police District's rookie of the year. Colleagues said he pushed supervisors to allow him to attend the weeklong bicycle training course so he could better patrol his beat, Sursum Corda -- a notoriously violent public housing complex off North Capitol Street.

"This guy is really out here hustling to make a difference," D.C. Police Inspector Andrew Solberg said. "I read the arrest reports, and it seemed like his name was on them all the time. He just seemed to be a central component in everything that was going on."

Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) issued a statement saying McBride was an officer who "loved his city and who served it well." Police said McBride lived in Maryland.

McBride and 15 other officers started the course Monday at the department's academy complex in Southwest Washington. The next morning, the officers did a 12-mile training ride that included hills, police said.

About 2 p.m. Tuesday, McBride attended a training session that focused on how to dismount a bike. An instructor noticed that McBride looked ill and asked him to sit down. McBride complained of dizziness and nausea, police said. He then vomited, they said. Officers initially thought he might have suffered heat stroke.

Sgt. Timothy Evans, who ran the bike course, said he was not aware that McBride had drunk so much liquid and gave him some water to cool him down.

"I thought it was heat exhaustion," said Evans, who worked with McBride in the 1st District. "It never dawned on me that it might have been over-hydration."

At some point, McBride told an instructor that he had consumed perhaps as much as three gallons of water contained in a backpack he was carrying. Bicyclists often drink water through a tube connected to a bladder contained in such packs.

Officers said that McBride seemed to be recovering as he sat out the exercise. When another officer hurt his knee, police summoned an ambulance. The paramedics noticed that McBride was convulsing and continuing to vomit. They took him to Washington Hospital Center, where he died about 1:30 p.m. yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/10/AR2005081001460.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:04 AM
matt@lefande.com

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

NM Sheriff says department helicopter was shot down  

A Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department helicopter that crashed over the weekend in the yard of an Albuquerque home was brought down by a bullet, Sheriff Darren White said late Tuesday.

At a news conference in New Mexico, White showed pictures of where a bullet penetrated the windshield of the aircraft, known as Metro One, and shattered on a pedal the pilot uses to fly the helicopter.

The inside of the cockpit tested positive for lead fragments, according to forensic tests, and pilot Chris Holland and Deputy Ward Pfefferle suffered shrapnel wounds.

White did not specifically explain how the bullet brought Metro One down Saturday night.

"We intend to use every resource available to track down the coward who is responsible for this sick and twisted act," said White, who credited the experience of the crew for avoiding loss of life.

An incredulous White promised to find the person who opened fire on the helicopter.

"How could someone walk out in the middle of the night and take a gun and fire at a helicopter that's out there trying to protect the public?" he said. "It's a miracle they're alive."

The FBI and Albuquerque police are assisting in the investigation.

Authorities have set up a tip line at 505-980-2496 and also urged anyone with information to call CrimeStoppers at 505-843-STOP.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/10/copter.shootdown/index.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 7:19 AM
matt@lefande.com

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Officials Monitored 9/11 Hijackers in U.S. a Year Before the Attacks  

Sept. 11 ringleader Mohammed Atta and three other hijackers were identified by defense intelligence officials more than a year before the attacks but information about their possible connections to al-Qaida never were forwarded to law enforcement, Rep. Curt Weldon said Tuesday.

Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican and vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, said the hijackers were identified in 1999 by a classified military intelligence unit known as "Able Danger," which determined they could be members of an al-Qaida cell.

Weldon said that in September 2000 the unit recommended that its information on the hijackers be given to the FBI "so they could bring that cell in and take out the terrorists," Weldon said in an interview.

However, Weldon said Pentagon lawyers rejected the recommendation because they said Atta and the others were in the country legally.

"In fact, I'll tell you how stupid it was, they put stickies on the faces of Mohammed Atta on the chart that the military intelligence unit had completed and they said you can't talk to Atta because he's here on a green card," Weldon said.

The congressman, who has occasionally been considered a maverick on Capitol Hill, initially made his allegations in a floor speech in June that garnered little attention. His talk came at the end of a legislative day during a period described under House rules as "special orders" - a time slot for lawmakers to get up and speak on issues of their choosing.

The issue resurfaced Monday in a story by the bimonthly Government Security News, which covers national security matters.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the 9/11 commission looked into the matter during its investigation into government missteps leading to the attacks and chose not to include it in thew final report.

Al Felzenberg, a spokesman for the 9/11 Commission, confirmed that the panel's investigators had been aware of Able Danger but said they "don't recall any mention of Mohammed Atta, per se, or any mention of a ... cell."

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB6DH8F6CE.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 5:18 PM
matt@lefande.com

UK Cops send Downs Syndrome civilian on patrol  

Three cops face a disciplinary hearing after sending a civilian with Downs Syndrome out on patrol.

The sergeant and two PCs gave him a police community liaison officer’s reflective jacket and sent him off into a town centre.

Horrified CCTV operators spotted the man — who is a well-known figure — and other officers were sent to find him.

But that was not before he had spent SIX HOURS pounding the beat at Brentwood, Essex. A police source said: “The man is well known in the town and often goes to chat with officers.

“They all know him by name and he generally gets treated very well. One morning he went into the station at 2.30am. Apparently some of the officers thought it would be a good idea to send him out on patrol.

“I’ve no doubt the poor chap was thrilled to be given the jacket. By all accounts he went on pounding the beat.

“But this man is already a vulnerable individual. What the officers did made him more so.

“The top brass were incensed when they found out what had happened.”

The two PCs have been suspended and the sergeant put on restricted duties, Essex Police said yesterday.

A spokeswoman added a misconduct hearing had been set for November

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005360285,00.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:48 AM
matt@lefande.com

DMV's Decrepit K Street Office Closed for Good  

The D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles facility on K Street NE, where motorists paid or contested tickets and fines for more than two decades, has been permanently closed because of maintenance problems with the building.

After watching the mercury pass 85 degrees inside and with reports of workers feeling ill, city officials over the weekend walked away for good from 65 K Street NE, deciding to close the building and relocate services and 80 employees to other DMV locations. The building has had heating and air conditioning problems for some time.

The K Street location was the only facility where motorists could pay fines in person or contest fines at hearings.

The move was an unexpected gift to scores of drivers who will have tickets dismissed because their hearings this week were canceled. An average of 120 hearings a day had been held at the K Street facility, the department said. Many more motorists who had fines due this week also will get a break as DMV issued a one-week grace period.

"We stopped the clock," said DMV Director Anne Witt. "If you had a ticket due this week, you got lucky."

Department officials said they could not estimate how much in ticket revenue would be lost.

The facility for the most comprehensive array of services is at the department's main location at 301 C Street NW. The problems at the K Street building, which the city leases for $131,978 per month, are not new. Ineffective heating forced the building to close for a day in March, leading the city to dismiss some tickets.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/08/AR2005080801493.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 7:22 AM
matt@lefande.com

Monday, August 08, 2005

Woman kicks out cruiser window, peppersprayalarity insues.  

With video goodness.

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=17237

posted by Matthew LeFande 7:48 AM
matt@lefande.com

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Police Chiefs Group Bolsters Policy on Suicide Bombers  

The International Association of Chiefs of Police, which represents the heads of police departments in the United States and across the world, has issued new guidelines saying that officers who confront a suicide bomber should shoot the suspect in the head.

The recommendations, the first from a major police organization to deal with the realities of a post-Sept. 11 world, take a more aggressive posture than typical lethal-force guidelines. The guidelines were published July 8 -- about two weeks before the London police, acting on a similar policy, fatally shot an innocent Brazilian seven times in the head because they mistook him for a suicide bomber.

The National Bomb Squad Commanders Advisory Board is developing the first national protocol for response to suicide bombers and is also recommending to police bomb squads nationwide that if a suspect is wearing a suicide bomb, an officer who needs to use deadly force should not shoot near the bomb.

U.S. police officers and federal agents typically have been authorized to use deadly force if lives are in imminent danger. But since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the definition of imminent danger has changed, prompting law enforcement officials to rethink the rules of engagement.

"There is not a responsible chief or head of a law enforcement agency in this country who isn't now pondering the dilemma a suicide bomber presents to their officers," said U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer, who became the first chief in the nation to adopt a shoot-to-kill policy if his officers are confronted with a suicide bomber.

After the July 7 attacks on the London transit system by suicide bombers, the international police chiefs organization produced a detailed training guide for dealing with suicide bombers for its 20,000 law enforcement members. It recommends that if an officer needs to use lethal force to stop someone who fits a certain behavioral profile, the officer should "aim for the head" to kill the person instantly and prevent the setting off of a bomb if one is strapped to the person's chest.

The police organization's behavioral profile says such a person might exhibit "multiple anomalies," including wearing a heavy coat or jacket in warm weather or carrying a briefcase, duffle bag or backpack with protrusions or visible wires. The person might display nervousness, an unwillingness to make eye contact or excessive sweating. There might be chemical burns on the clothing or stains on the hands. The person might mumble prayers or be "pacing back and forth in front of a venue."

The police group's guidelines also say the threat to officers does not have to be "imminent," as police training traditionally teaches. Officers do not have to wait until a suspected bomber makes a move, another traditional requirement for police to use deadly force. An officer just needs to have a "reasonable basis" to believe that the suspect can detonate a bomb, the guidelines say.

Last year, Gainer retrained his officers to shoot to kill when faced with a suspected suicide bomber who is uncooperative and refuses to stop and be searched. Other law enforcement officials say they are debating the issue and might follow his lead if there is a suicide bombing in this country.

"I can guarantee you that if we have, God forbid, a suicide bomber in a big city in the United States, 'shoot to kill' will be the inevitable policy," said Miami Police Chief John F. Timoney in an interview. "It's not a policy we choose lightly, but it's the only policy."

In Israel and the United Kingdom, countries with a history of confronting terrorist violence, police have adopted a national policy of shooting a suspected suicide bomber in the head to prevent detonation of a suicide vest. The British order became public last week after the shooting of the Brazilian.

"I really empathize with the British authorities," said Gainer, who is responsible for protecting 535 members of Congress, their staff members and visitors to the U.S. Capitol. "It's a Hobson's choice. How do you control someone you think has a suicide belt on? But what are the consequences of shooting someone, who, because of behavioral profiles, looks and acts like a suicide bomber but turns out isn't?"

Assistant FBI Director Michael A. Mason, who oversees the Washington Field Office, demonstrated the difficulty of the split-second decision with a hypothetical situation: A man in a heavy coat on a hot Washington afternoon heads up the steps of a Smithsonian museum, where a group of children is standing. Someone yells that the man has explosives. Mason identifies himself as an FBI agent and screams for the man to stop, but the man ignores him.

"What do you do?" Mason asked. "I am instantly between a rock and a hard place."

Gainer retrained his officers after a trip to Israel during which he and other chiefs traveled with the Police Executive Research Forum for week-long counterterrorism schooling from Israeli officers familiar with confronting Palestinian suicide bombers.

The Israeli training of British and American law enforcement officials makes some groups ask whether the police are going too far. The tension is especially pronounced among Muslim community leaders, who are deeply suspicious of Israel because of the country's long-standing conflict with the Palestinians.

"The London situation where an innocent man was shot and killed was based on Israeli procedure, and I don't think that we want to be replicating the actions of a foreign government engaged in a brutal occupation of another people," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "It sends the wrong message to the Muslim world."

In contrast to the national shoot-to-kill policies of Israel and Britain, American use-of-force orders are set by each of the nation's 18,000 law enforcement agencies.

A number of high-profile shootings in the past decade, including that of Amadou Diallo, who was shot 41 times in 1999 by New York police officers, highlighted the abuse of lethal force by out-of-control officers and the deadly mistakes that can be made by fearful or reckless police.

Most law enforcement agencies, including the D.C. police, are supposed to use what is known as a continuum of force: If force is used, it should be applied or increased in proportion to the suspect's actions and level of resistance.

Deadly force policies across the country are similar to those of the Metro Transit Police, who patrol the Washington area's subways and bus terminals. "Lethal force can be used if the officer reasonably believes his/her life or the lives of others is in danger or in defense of any person in imminent danger of serious physical injury," reads the Transit Police policy.

With the exception of sniper units or SWAT teams, police officers are generally taught to "shoot to stop" or "shoot to neutralize." Officers traditionally are trained to aim at the center body mass, which offers the largest target, if they are in a situation that requires the use of deadly force.

But now, in the case of a suicide bomber, the international police organization says that tactic would be "inappropriate." According to the group's training guidelines, a bullet could hit an explosive device and detonate it. The bullet also might wound the bomber, who could then detonate an explosive vest. In addition, some explosives -- such as smokeless powder and triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, which apparently was used in the London bombings -- are sensitive to heat, shock and friction, according to the training document.

"You need to get him dead as quick as possible," said Timoney, the Miami police chief. "The easiest way to do that is a head shot. That's the only way to guarantee. It's not something you relish. But if you shot him in the upper torso, that person would be able to make movements and make sure the bomb, if he had it, could go off. A body shot very seldom kills instantly."

David Heyman, director of the homeland security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he does not think that most U.S. police departments will adopt a shoot-to-kill policy unless there is a suicide bomber on U.S. soil.

But terrorism experts said departments need to move now to develop clear directives and prepare their forces in case that day comes.

"The police standard operating procedure of addressing a suspect and telling them to drop their weapon and put their hands up or freeze is not going to work with a suicide bomber," said Bruce Hoffman, author of "Inside Terrorism" and a terrorist expert at the Rand Corp. "You're signing your own death warrant if you do that."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/03/AR2005080301867.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 7:23 AM
matt@lefande.com

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Legislation Would Allow Profiling Of Arabs  

A New York State Assemblyman says he plans to introduce legislation allowing cops to use racial profiling to target Middle Easterners when searching bags.

Dov Hikind, a Brooklyn Democrat, says the NYPD's new policy of randomly checking bags at subway entrances may be politically correct, but it won't make passengers safer.

Hikind said police should focus on young Middle Easterners called and called it - insane - to look for bombs in the bags of 75-year-old grandmothers.

Racial profiling is illegal, but Hikind says he will introduce legislation to remove that prohibition.

Police spokesman Paul Browne has dismissed the idea. Browne says racial profiling is illegal, ineffective, and against police department policy.

http://1010wins.com/topstories/local_story_213073519.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 7:50 AM
matt@lefande.com

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