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From LA Times

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One man killed, two others near death in three separate incidents

"It was quiet all day," he said. "Then they got busy down there."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Roman Polanski attorneys may have provoked arrest by complaining L.A. wasn't serious about arresting director

Roman Polanski's attorneys may have helped provoke his arrest by complaining to an appellate court this summer that Los Angeles prosecutors had never made any real effort to arrest the filmmaker in his three decades as a fugitive, two sources familiar with the case told The Times.

The accusation that the Los Angeles County district attorney's office was not serious about extraditing Polanski was a small part of two July court filings by the director's attorneys. But it caught the attention of prosecutors and led to his capture in Switzerland on Saturday, the sources said.

Polanski, 76, was taken into custody at the airport in Zurich, where he was scheduled to headline the city's film festival. Details of his appearance were widely available on the Internet. Variety also reported his planned attendance in August, the month after Polanski's attorneys had filed two separate documents with the 2nd District of the state Court of Appeal asking for a dismissal of the 32-year-old child sex case against the filmmaker.

In both, the lawyers alleged that the district attorney's office in effect benefited from Polanski's absence, because as long as he remained a fugitive, officials could avoid answering allegations of prosecutorial and judicial wrongdoing in the original handling of the case.

“The district attorney's office, in the 30 years since Mr. Polanski left the jurisdiction, has not once sought to have him extradited. If it had, there would have been a hearing regarding misconduct in this case,” wrote the attorneys, Chad Hummel, Douglas Dalton and Bart Dalton, in a July 7 filing.

Twenty days later, they filed a second document and raised the issue again in a footnote. “Combined with the fact that no effort has been made to extradite Mr. Polanski, the intent here is clear: invoke a physical absence which they caused and deliberately perpetuate in order to preserve the unconstitutional status quo and never address the misconduct head on,” the lawyers wrote. 

The allegations prompted the district attorney's office to look for an opportunity to seize Polanski, and his appearance in Switzerland, which has an extradition treaty with the U.S., provided such a chance, said the sources, who spoke to The Times on the condition that they not be named because it was an ongoing investigation.

In bemoaning Polanski's arrest, his supporters have noted that in recent years the director traveled widely in Europe without fear of arrest and even owned a home in Switzerland.

The arrest has become an international incident, with France and Poland demanding that the famed director be released on bail and questioning why he was taken into custody.

The district attorney's office wants Polanski extradited to face charges that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told France-Inter radio that he and Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski asked Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that Polanski be released on bail, calling his arrest  a "bit sinister."

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand was quoted in French media as saying, "In the same way that there is a generous America that we like, there is also a scary America that has just shown its face."

Swiss authorities told the Associated Press that bail has not been ruled out, but the director would have to stay in Switzerland.

Robert Harris, a British novelist who had worked with Polanski, said in a statement that he believed the arrest was "politically motivated." "I am shocked that any man of 76, whether distinguished or not, should have been treated in such a fashion," he said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/roman-polanski-attorney-may-have-prevoked-arrest-by-complaining-la-wasnt-serious-about-arresting-dir.html#more

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Roman Polanski arrest becomes an international incident [Updated]

The arrest of Roman Polanski has become an international incident, with France and Poland demanding that the famed director be released on bail and questioning why he was taken into custody.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office wants Polanski extradited to face charges that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl 30 years ago.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told France-Inter radio that he and Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski asked Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that Polanski be released on bail, calling his arrest  a "bit sinister."

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand was quoted in French media as saying, "In the same way that there is a generous America that we like, there is also a scary America that has just shown its face."

Swiss authorities told the Associated Press that bail has not been ruled out, but the director would have to stay in Switzerland.

Robert Harris, a British novelist who had worked with Polanski, said in a statement that he believed the arrest was "politically motivated." "I am shocked that any man of 76, whether distinguished or not, should have been treated in such a fashion," he said.

Polanski's decision to attend the Zurich Film Festival this weekend was a major win for a minor event, but it turned into a bigger coup for Los Angeles County authorities who seized the opportunity to arrange the arrest  of a Hollywood fugitive.

But statements by his French attorney suggested there was little chance that Polanski would return without a fight. Herve Temime told the French newspaper Le Figaro that he planned to fly to Switzerland with Polanski's wife, actress Emmanuelle Seigner, to seek the director's release.

[ Updated at 7:23 a.m.: Temime told ABC's "Good Morning America" that Polanski would fight extradition. "He wants to struggle, and I think it will be possible for us to maintain his freedom," he said.]

For the next decade, Polanski made no public attempts to resolve the case. He won the Academy Award for best director for 2002's "The Pianist," but was not at the ceremony despite Geimer's call for authorities to permit him to attend.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/roman-polanski-arrest-becomes-an-international-incident.html#more

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Polanski arrest draws cheers and jeers in Europe

Those in the arts community see the film director as a hounded hero whose jailing reflects America's dark side. Others see the arrest and Switzerland's cooperation in the sting as justice overdue.

By Henry Chu and Devorah Lauter

September 29, 2009

Reporting from Paris and London

Which of his films does Roman Polanski's life resemble most: "Rosemary's Baby," his horror classic about a devil whose libido is hideously visited upon an innocent young woman, or "The Pianist," his Oscar-winning tale of an artist who survives relentless state persecution?

Here in Europe, where the celebrated director finds himself looking at the world from behind bars instead of through a movie camera, it all depends on whom you ask.

To those in the arts community, especially in France where Polanski lives, he has been cast as a hounded hero whose arrest in Switzerland on Saturday smacks of something "frightening" about America. The same sentiment holds in Polanski's homeland, Poland, where a prominent group of Polish artists, writers, actors and film directors issued an open letter titled "Free Roman Polanski."

"What happened 30 years ago and the role Polanski played in it deserves negative moral evaluation," the letter says. "But we also want to point out that for Roman Polanski, leaving the United States was an escape from a court lynching."

Yet test the mood beyond the entertainment industry and sympathy for Polanski is far less forthcoming. In an online poll in the French daily Le Figaro, more than 70% of nearly 29,500 respondents said Polanski should face justice for his alleged crimes. And in Zurich, where police arrested Polanski at the request of Los Angeles authorities when he arrived to headline a film festival, 40-year-old Maja Tanner applauded the arrest.

"He deserves it, because let's not forget that the person we are talking about was a child," Tanner said of the 13-year-old girl with whom Polanski admitted having sex in 1977, after plying her with alcohol and drugs. He fled the U.S. before he could be sentenced for his guilty plea to having sex with a minor.

"As a mother, I can only affirm that it is right what our government did, and that I would want to see justice even after so many years," said Tanner, a homemaker.

For the moment, Polanski is holed up in the cell of an unidentified Swiss jail, allowed an hour of outdoor exercise each day, the Associated Press reported. His lawyer, Herve Temime, told the AP that he would seek bail for the 76-year-old director and vigorously fight extradition to the U.S.

Meanwhile, the court of public opinion has been convened, with verdicts pouring in and the European media having a Roman holiday.

Former Polish President Lech Walesa called Polanski a "great person" and pleaded, "If he did this one sin, forgive him."

The French cultural and political establishment sought to fit Polanski's detention into the classic plot line of American prudery and priggishness.

"There's the America of art and culture, and then there's American justice, which is very Puritan, which doesn't forget, which doesn't forgive, that absolutely wants enforce, exercise the law, punish," said Serge Toubiana, head of the French film archive and heritage institution, the Cinematheque Francaise. "Justice has a right to be exercised, but not in any old way."

The notion that the occasion of a film festival honoring a celebrated director could be used to set up a police sting seemed to particularly rankle. "A man of such talent, recognized throughout the world, recognized especially in the country that arrests him -- all this is not very pleasant," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

But support for Polanski and demands that the case against him be dropped were not just a case of some particular French penchant for granting moral dispensation to artists. The portrayal of a mistreated Polanski was prevalent in art circles on both sides of the Atlantic.

In an open letter, Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein called on "every U.S. filmmaker to lobby against any move to bring Polanski back to the U.S.," arguing that "whatever you think of the so-called crime, Polanski has served his time."

A similar petition is being organized in Italy, with signatories including actress Monica Bellucci and director Giuseppe Tornatore, according to the newspaper La Repubblica. And the Swiss daily Le Temps worried about the effect of the detention on the country's image.

"For this brave and efficient cooperation with the American authorities, Switzerland shocks cinephiles and friends of the arts. She angers Poland and France," the paper wrote.

Still, in a snap poll by the Basler Zeitung newspaper, two-thirds of respondents said Swiss police had done the right thing in arresting Polanski. And the law-and-order argument was heard loudly in Britain, where people have become experts of sorts in the long shadows cast by old crimes.

Last month, British authorities granted early release on medical grounds to Ronnie Biggs, who helped commit the notorious Great Train Robbery of 1963, and Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi, the only man convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Both decisions sparked outrage and contempt, emotions that also surfaced Monday over the Polanski case.

"Polanski should have faced the music 30 years ago," one reader wrote on the website of the Guardian newspaper. "The man is not only a rapist, but a coward who has avoided responsibility for his actions and disingenuously exploits his status as an 'important artist' to avoid punishment. All those Hollywood stars who support him are fools."

Whatever their differences, many Europeans share puzzlement as to why Polanski was arrested now, after years of entering and leaving Switzerland, where he owns a home in the resort town of Gstaad. Critics have suggested, and officials have denied, that the Swiss government may be trying to reconcile with Washington after a nasty fallout over money deposited into Swiss bank accounts by American tax cheats.

There were signs the detention could spiral into a diplomatic clash. French and Polish officials have written to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urging her to intervene in the case. Polish President Lech Kaczynski described himself as "a little stupefied" by the news from Zurich, though he acknowledged his government would have a hard time freeing Polanski, saying, "It is very difficult with the Americans."

Meanwhile, the Zurich Film Festival, which had planned to give a lifetime achievement award to Polanski, was left to fume over the no-show.

"We came to honor Roman Polanski as a great artist, but under these sudden and arcane circumstances, we can only think of him today as a human being, uncertain of the year ahead," the festival president said. "We hope today that this latest order will be dropped."

The president is actress Debra Winger.

"We stand by and await his release -- and his next masterwork," she said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-polanski-europe29-2009sep29,0,4610688,print.story

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2 suspects still at large in killing of baby

Two adult friends were wounded in what the LAPD says was a gang-related shooting in Van Nuys. The attack took place as the parents and baby were returning home from a baptismal party for another infant.

By Catherine Saillant and Ann M. Simmons

9:46 PM PDT, September 28, 2009

Marlene Ramirez and Frank Garcia didn't have a lot, but they were devoted to their 4-month-old son Andrew, relatives said Monday.

"He was their life," said Veronica Munoz, Ramirez's cousin.

On Monday, Garcia, 21, a warehouse worker, and Ramirez, 18, were making funeral arrangements for their baby, a day after he was killed and two others wounded in what police say was a gang-related shooting in Van Nuys.

The killing happened about 1 a.m. Sunday in the 14300 block of Kittridge Street as the young couple were preparing to drive home from a friend's baptismal celebration, Los Angeles police said.

Two unidentified male suspects remained at large and were last seen fleeing on foot. One was described as 18 to 22 years old and about 5 foot 9 with a shaved head. The other is about 5 foot 5 and 200 pounds, police said.

Witnesses spotted a brown pickup filled with recyclables leaving the area shortly after the shooting. Police said the vehicle could be linked to the crime.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who attended a police news conference Monday afternoon, asked for the public's help in bringing the killers to justice, calling the shooting an "obscene and unspeakable tragedy."

The family's Saturday evening had started out happily at the baptismal party at the Bernardi Multipurpose Center on Tyrone Avenue. After leaving the party about midnight, they agreed to drop off Anna Contreras, 28, a friend who lived nearby, before driving to their North Hollywood home, Munoz said.

Andrew had begun fussing, Munoz said her cousin told her, and the couple parked their car outside Contreras' house so that Contreras could give him a bottle. Garcia got out of the car and was chatting with friends when two men approached the group on foot and a confrontation took place, she said.

Police said the suspects fired six rounds from a shotgun, striking Contreras and baby Andrew in the head. They also hit Eric Ramirez, 18, a family friend who was standing outside the car with Garcia. The mother, in the car with Contreras, was not injured.

The 4-month-old was airlifted to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he underwent surgery. Munoz said doctors were initially upbeat about his condition but about 4 a.m. informed the family that he had died.

"Marlene said, 'Why did God bring him to me if he was going to take him away so quickly?' " Munoz said tearfully.

Contreras, who is pregnant, underwent surgery at a hospital and is expected to survive, said LAPD Det. Robert Bub. Eric Ramirez suffered minor injuries and was treated at a hospital and released, said his mother, Maria Ramirez, who went to the scene Monday.

Maria Ramirez said her son told her that the two men who approached the group demanded to know where they were from. Her son responded "Barrio Van Nuys" and the two men fired at them, Maria Ramirez said.

Police said that Eric Ramirez is a known gang member and that the baby's father has had "minor" associations with gangs. Family members said neither is affiliated with gangs.

After the shooting, Marlene Ramirez ran down the street with Andrew in her arms, looking for help, her cousin said. A neighbor persuaded the young mother to sit on the grass and wait for an ambulance, Munoz said.

On Monday, a trail of blood drops leading from the site of the shooting to the end of the block could be seen on the sidewalk. A teddy bear memorial, with votive candles and balloons, marked the spot where Andrew was hit.

Frank Garcia works in a warehouse and Marlene Ramirez has a job at McDonald's, Munoz said. Marlene Ramirez is attending a local continuation school to finish her high school classes, the cousin said.

"She wanted to get a better job for Andrew," Munoz said.

The gritty neighborhood where the shooting took place is made up of modest homes and apartments and is just blocks from the Van Nuys police station and civic buildings, including the Van Nuys Courthouse. Neighbors said that they are used to police helicopters and sirens but that shootings on their block are rare.

Violent crime has generally declined in Van Nuys over the last two years, Los Angeles Police Department records show. Homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults fell 25% between 2007 and the year to date.

Gang-related crime has also fallen, said LAPD Deputy Chief Michel Moore. In 2002, there were 49 victims of gang violence compared to 18 for the year to date, Moore said. But police cautioned that spikes in gang-related shootings occur despite strides in reducing crime.

Councilman Tony Cardenas, who represents the district, said he would ask the City Council today to approve a $50,000 reward to help find the baby's killers. Neighbors and relatives said they hoped to see quick arrests.

"It's such a tragic thing for anybody to die," said Johnna Hodges, 58, who lives three houses away from where the shooting took place. "But a baby -- it just tugs at your heart."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-infant-shot29-2009sep29,0,3383993,print.story

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Secret Service investigates Obama poll on Facebook

The poll, set up by a Facebook member, asked if the president should be assassinated. It's been taken down, and the seriousness of the threat is being evaluated.

By David G. Savage

September 29, 2009

Reporting from Washington

Facebook, the popular social networking website, moved quickly Monday to take down a member's poll asking if President Obama should be assassinated.

The question, "Should Obama be killed?" had received 730 responses since its posting on Saturday. The four possible answers: Yes. Maybe. If he cuts my healthcare. No.

The Secret Service launched an investigation into the threat against the president.

A Facebook spokesman said the Palo Alto-based company was not aware of the poll until early Monday and did not know who posted it or who responded to it.

"At this time, we don't know," said Barry Schnitt, a spokesman for policy. "But we assume the developer has some or all of this information."

Schnitt said a "third-party developer" had created the platform on Facebook that allows individuals to create their own polls. The questions are often trivial, he said.

The Secret Service confirmed that it was investigating who was behind the poll and his or her intent.

"We worked with Facebook to take it down, and we are currently investigating the matter," said Ed Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman in Washington.

Asked who posted the poll, Donovan replied: "That's what we are investigating."

The responses to the poll weren't available.

Threatening the president's life is a crime. The Secret Service said it regularly investigates threatening comments or incidents involving disturbing words or images of the chief executive.

But officials also said that tasteless comments or idle bluster are probably not enough to trigger legal action. The agency seeks to determine whether the person who made the threats had some intent to carry them out or to otherwise incite violence against the president.

Facebook members had their own quick response Monday. A second poll was launched asking whether the creator of the first poll should be arrested.

Schnitt said Facebook tries to keep troubling and offensive material off its website.

"We encourage reporting. People contact us all the time if they see things that are inappropriate. And we investigate all those reports. We take action by taking it down, by issuing a warning or by reporting it to law enforcement," he said. "At the same time, we want Facebook to be open to discuss ideas. We don't pre-approve postings."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-facebook29-2009sep29,0,5091239,print.story

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Missile tests underscore the threat Iran poses in Mideast

The launches show Iran is capable of striking Israel, Europe and U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf. They send a message that 'we are able to give a swift . . . answer to our enemies,' a general says.

By Jeffrey Fleishman

September 29, 2009

Reporting from Cairo

Iran's reported test-firing Monday of medium-range missiles that could reach Israel, Europe and American bases in the Persian Gulf was a reminder of the potent military threat Tehran poses to nations seeking to derail its nuclear program.

The launches demonstrated that Tehran was capable of striking its enemies, especially Israel, which has suggested it might attack Iran's nuclear installations, and the United States, which is urging tougher United Nations sanctions against the Islamic Republic while preparing to create a shield to protect its allies from Iranian missiles.

The missiles fired Monday, the Shahab-3 and Sejil-2, were launched in the desert as part of military exercises that began before the U.S., France and Britain last week accused Tehran of building a secret uranium-enrichment plant. The U.S. and other nations suspect Tehran's nuclear program is designed to create weapons rather than energy for civilian purposes and have threatened new sanctions on Iran if international inspectors are denied access to the facility.

In Washington, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the missile tests again showed "the provocative nature with which Iran has acted on the international stage for a number of years" and repeated President Obama's recent demand that Tehran allow inspectors into the new site.

"There has never been a stronger international consensus to address Iran and its nuclear program than there is right now," Gibbs added.

Russian news service Ria Novosti quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying: "This is not illegal under any international agreements, but of course when missile launches are accompanied by an unresolved situation around Iran's nuclear program, this concerns us." Lavrov spoke after meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, in New York.

The Shahab-3 and the Sejil-2 have ranges of 800 to 1,200 miles. The Sejil-2 is powered by solid fuel, making it more accurate than previous generations of missiles in the Islamic Republic's arsenal.

It was not the first time these missiles were tested, but their launches as part of an exercise named the Great Prophet IV coincided with growing tension before Iran's meeting in Geneva on Thursday with representatives of the U.S. and other world powers.

Iran's Press TV reported that the missiles "accurately hit their designated targets . . . during the first and second stages of military drill in central Iran Sunday night."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said the missile tests were not a response to international pressure on Iran's nuclear program. They were, he said, part of Sacred Defense Week's annual military exercises to commemorate Iran's war with Iraq in the 1980s.

"Many countries have these [displays], and it has nothing to do with Iran's peaceful nuclear technology," he said at a news conference.

Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, was more pointed.

The general was quoted by the Iranian media as saying the tests in recent days of medium- and short-range missiles send "a message for certain greedy nations that seek to create fear, to show that we are able to give a swift and suitable answer to our enemies."

The general added, "We are going to respond to any military action in a crushing manner, and it doesn't make any difference which country or regime has launched the aggression."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-missiles29-2009sep29,0,2195062,print.story

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Station fire victims call for U.S. probe into Forest Service's response

Residents are critical of the agency's decision to scale back an attack on the blaze on the night before it began to burn out of control. Two firefighters were killed in the wildfire.

By Paul Pringle

September 29, 2009

Big Tujunga Canyon residents and others reeling from the Station fire called Monday for a federal investigation into what they termed a poor initial response to the deadly blaze by the U.S. Forest Service .

"It was beyond irresponsibility, beyond neglect," said Cindy Marie Pain, who lost her Big Tujunga Canyon home to the fire, which broke out in the Angeles National Forest on Aug. 26.

Pain and other residents said they were outraged by a Times article Sunday that reported the Forest Service had underestimated the danger posed by the fire and scaled back an attack on the flames the night before the blaze began to rage out of control.

"When it's small, that's when you jump on it," said Bronwen Aker, a Vogel Flats resident who set up a website, www.angelesrising.org , for fire victims.

Her home was spared, but those of many of her neighbors were destroyed.

"A lot of residents are incredibly embittered about the way it was handled," Aker said.

Bob Kerstein, who lost a cabin and a house on gold-mining property that his family owns in the forest, said Congress should investigate the Forest Service's tactics.

"It's crazy what happened here," he said. "There are a lot of heroes in this -- the firefighters who were on the line. But the people who should be held accountable are the people who made the decision not to put the fire out in the 48 hours after it started."

Leo Grillo, an actor who runs an animal sanctuary that was threatened by the blaze, said any investigation should also examine the lack of a more aggressive air assault later in the fire, especially when it appeared to have flagged on Day Five.

"They had the golden opportunity to put it out and they didn't," he said.

The Times reported that the Forest Service had been confident that the fire was nearly contained on the first day, and the agency decided that evening to order just three water-dropping helicopters to hit the blaze shortly after dawn on its second day -- down from five on Day One, documents and interviews show.

The Forest Service also prepared to go into mop-up mode with fewer firefighters on the ground, according to records and officials.

Early in the morning on the second day, the Forest Service realized that three helicopters would not be enough and summoned two more later in the morning, Angeles Forest Fire Chief David Conklin said. More engine companies and ground crews were also deployed, but it would prove too late.

On Day Two, the Los Angeles County Fire Department lent the Forest Service a heli-tanker but denied a request for another smaller chopper -- an action that residents say should be reviewed. Chief Deputy John Tripp, the No. 2 official in the county department, said he withheld the second aircraft because he did not believe the fire was endangering neighborhoods near its suspected ignition point above La Cañada Flintridge, and because the county must hold on to some helicopters for other emergencies.

The Station fire would become the largest in the county's recorded history, blackening more than 160,000 acres of the forest, destroying dozens of dwellings and killing two county firefighters who died when their truck fell off a mountain road.

Conklin and Tripp told The Times they probably will change their procedures so that the two agencies immediately stage a joint assault on any fire in the lower Angeles.

Several foothill residents have expressed suspicions that the Forest Service let the fire burn early on as a way to clear dry brush, and that the decision not to bring in more aircraft and firefighters for the second morning was based on cost concerns.

Forest Service officials have said both notions are false.

On Monday night, residents packed a Tujunga meeting hall to ask fire officials if more could have been done to save homes. The gathering became contentious at times.

Tripp said the county did the best it could without putting firefighters' lives in jeopardy.

"If anybody thinks we take this lightly, we don't," he said in an emotional voice.

But Rob Driscoll, whose Vogel Flats home burned, was not satisfied.

"We're angry and we need better answers than we've gotten tonight," Driscoll said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-station-fire29-2009sep29,0,596918,print.story

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Editorial

Prosecuting Polanski

Despite a host of objections, the Justice Department and L.A.'s district attorney are right to seek extradition after having the director arrested in a decades-old child sexual abuse case.

September 29, 2009

Roman Polanski is a cinematic genius with a tragic history. But he is also a fugitive from justice who pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and the U.S. Justice Department acted properly in asking Switzerland to extradite Polanski, regardless of how much time has elapsed and despite the fact that his grown-up victim isn't seeking his imprisonment.

The 76-year-old director of "Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" was arrested over the weekend in Zurich, where he was to have received an award. Many of Polanski's admirers in this country and abroad were outraged.

Their complaints were varied: It's a waste of money to apprehend Polanski for a crime committed in 1977. He is being hounded because he's a celebrity. He has suffered enough, both as a child in the Holocaust and as a husband whose wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by disciples of Charles Manson. Samantha Geimer, his victim, has said she would have been content to have Polanski sentenced to time served (42 days, in a prison psychiatric facility). Questions also have been raised about the judge, who was ready to renege on a plea agreement that would have spared Polanski additional imprisonment.

Finally, in a caricature of European cosmopolitanism, France's culture minister fumed that the harrying of such a cultural icon revealed the face of "a scary America."

Some of these arguments are more persuasive than others. For example, Polanski may have a due-process claim based on improper behavior by the judge in his case. By contrast, he shouldn't be left alone because of tragedies in his life or his status as a legendary director. Nor is it relevant that his victim seeks no further punishment for him. Prosecutions are brought in the name of the state, not the victim.

Plausible or preposterous, these arguments are eclipsed by a simple fact: Polanski fled the country.

There was understandable outrage in 2001 when President Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, a commodities trader who had refused to return to the United States to face charges of tax evasion and trading with Iran. If a defendant accused of white-collar crimes must answer to accusations in court, so must someone accused of the far graver offense of sexually abusing a child. (Although Polanski pleaded guilty to statutory rape, Geimer has said that the sex wasn't consensual.)

In February, a judge said there had been "substantial" official misconduct in Polanski's original case, so the director may well persuade a court to free him. But first he must return.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-polanski29-2009sep29,0,6934459,print.story

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Opinion

Organ transplants: In a loss, we gained so much

The death of my son took joy from my family, but the decision to donate his organs has provided an emotional connection to people around the world.

By Reg Green

September 28, 2009

Fifteen years ago, during a family vacation in southern Italy, my 7-year-old son, Nicholas, died after being shot in a botched robbery. I knew then that I could never be really happy again.

Maggie -- my wife -- and I are not gloomy people. And with three other lively children, our home is not a mournful place. But, as I sensed then, the realization that Nicholas' radiant life was snuffed out still colors all my thinking. I think of all the books he will never read, the friends he will never meet, the sunsets and mountains and starry skies he will never see.

What I never expected was the emotional upsurge around the world that followed our decision to donate his organs and corneas to seven very sick Italians, four of them teenagers. Telegrams, flowers, even toys for our 4-year-old daughter, Eleanor, flooded in from all parts of Italy. The president and prime minister came to see us and talked to us as if they were old family friends. An Italian military aircraft, with an honor guard, brought Nicholas' body home to California.

Individual gestures of solidarity sprang up immediately and have never ceased. A small bakery dressed its employees in coveralls with "Thank you, Nicholas" logos on them. Parks, bridges, schools and streets from the Alps to Sicily -- and the largest hospital in Italy -- are named for him. For years, a school in Sicily has had two clocks in its entrance hall, one showing the time in Italy, the other in California, so that students will feel the connection every day. Italians of all ages feel so close to him that they refer to him not by his full name but as " piccolo Nicholas," little Nicholas.

More important, the rates of organ donation in Italy have more than quadrupled since his death, going from 4.2 per million inhabitants in 1994 to 18 per million last year. As a result, thousands of people are alive who would have died, and every year hundreds more are saved.

But the effect stretched far beyond Italy. To this day, we receive e-mails from around the world. Some are dramatic, like those from people who donated a loved one's organs because they were moved by our story. Most, however, are from people who simply want to tell us that they have not forgotten what happened and that it has, in some way, changed their view of life. A woman wrote recently to say that as a child in Iran, she had written an essay on Nicholas and that she still feels close to him.

I still cannot think of Nicholas without feeling that life has lost an essential ingredient, but I also recognize that more good came out of his death than I had any right to expect.

In the last 15 years, transplantation has been undergoing a transformation too. Almost 500,000 organ transplant operations have been done in the United States since the pioneering days of the 1960s. There also have been millions of tissue transplants -- corneas that restore sight, skin that heals burns, bone that straightens spines. Once thought of, if thought of at all, as a rare, risky and slightly weird medical procedure, organ donation is now familiar enough to be featured on front pages and in prime-time TV series. It's rare for me to meet an adult who doesn't know someone who has had, or may need, a transplant.

Techniques have improved dramatically, so that even as transplants have become the procedure of choice for ever-older, ever-younger and ever-sicker patients, survival rates have gone up. Now, for example, 87% of heart recipients are alive after one year, 71% after five years. Given that all these people were terminally ill, many on the threshold of death, the results speak for themselves.

There is a simple way for you to express your willingness to be an organ donor: Just tell your family it is something you want. It doesn't have to be a big deal -- but should they ever be asked to make such a decision, they will know they are carrying out your wish.

In most states, you can register your decision so that it becomes legally binding. In California, you can sign up online any time at www.donatelifecalifornia.org "> www.donatelifecalifornia.org , or whenever you renew your driver's license. A single donation usually produces three or four organs, so your decision could save three or four families, just like your own, from devastation. There is also all that tissue, which can relieve the pain and fear of many more.

When the doctors told Maggie and me that Nicholas was brain dead, the people who would receive his organs were just abstractions to us, without faces or histories. But now that we have met them -- and know what would have happened to them if we had shrugged off their problems as none of our concern -- I cannot imagine how we could have made any other choice.
Reg Green is the author of "The Nicholas Effect" and "The Gift That Heals." www.nicholasgreen.org .

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-green28-2009sep28,0,78455,print.story

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From the Daily News

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LAPD intensifies efforts in Valley after shootings

VAN NUYS - Dozens of LAPD officers fanned out Monday across the San Fernando Valley and city leaders renewed pledges to get tough on gangs in the wake of a shotgun slaying of a 4-month-old boy just hours after he was baptized.

The gang-related shooting capped a weeklong spike in violence, with city officials announcing a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the boy's killers.

"It strikes an especially tragic chord when the life of such a young child is ended even before it had a chance to begin," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a news conference with police in Van Nuys, where the killing took place early Sunday.

"But as we mourn the loss of innocent life, we must reaffirm our steadfast commitment to fighting gang crime."

Los Angeles Police Department homicide investigators are searching for two Latino men believed responsible for the death of Andrew Garcia, the infant who died from his wounds after the 1 a.m. shooting in the 14300 block of Kittridge Street.

Police said Garcia was killed when his parents stopped to speak with a friend on Kittridge after a big family gathering for the boy's baptism at the Bernardi Multipurpose Senior Center.

The boy's father got out of the car to chat with Eric Ramirez, 18, who police said is a gang member. Two men, one armed with a short-barreled shotgun, approached Ramirez and then fired into the car, apparently targeting Ramirez.

The shotgun blast fatally wounded the boy, and also wounded Anna Contreras, 28, a family friend who was holding the boy in her lap. Contreras, who is listed in stable condition, is pregnant but her unborn child was not hurt. The blast also wounded Ramirez, who is in stable condition.

The boy's mother, who was also in the car, was not harmed and the boy's father escaped injury. Police did not identify the parents.

The assailants fled on foot, running northbound on Sylmar Avenue from Kittridge Street. Police said witnesses saw a tan truck that appeared to be tailing the two assailants. They are urging anyone with information to contact LAPD's Van Nuys Division at 818-374-9500.

As of Sunday, 40 extra officers had been deployed in the Valley, searching for assailants and witnesses in a spate of unrelated and seemingly senseless killings.

"The only commonality of these crimes is the calendar. They're not related to each other. As people are looking for the underlying thread, so are we," said Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Michel Moore, who is the leading officer in the San Fernando Valley.

"It demonstrates how fragile our peace is."

Police said the disturbing spate of violence is unrelated, with some shootings deemed gang related and others sheer acts of rage.

With detectives scouring streets searching for the shooters and witnesses and making several arrests, authorities have added the officers to the streets to quell further violence.

Los Angeles Councilman Tony Cardenas said that despite city plans calling for changes to the police force that could reduce their presence on streets, he remains committed to bringing as many resources as possible to help stifle violence plaguing communities.

"My heart and prayers go out to the family of Andrew Garcia," Cardenas said. "Once again, senseless gang violence has taken the life of an innocent baby."

The child's death marked the end of a violent weekend.

At 2 a.m. Saturday, a man in his 30s was shot in his stomach while seated in his car at an Arco Gas Station at Roscoe Boulevard and Ventura Canyon Avenue in Panorama City. The gunmen had approached the man in a car and asked where he was from - a code gang bangers say to find out what gangs others belong to.

At 2:45 a.m. Saturday, a shooting after a party in Canoga Park left two men dead. Isidro Meza-Rojas, 28, and Guillermo Mendoza-Rojas, 21, both of Canoga Park, were discovered lying dead from gunshot wounds in the street in the 8800 block of Independence Avenue.

One man on Sunday night turned himself into authorities for the killings. Police are searching for a second man, but have not yet released his identity and do not believe the shooting was gang related.

A 23-year-old man survived a drive-by shooting, believed gang related, at 8:35 a.m. Sunday as he stood in the 10000 block of Vena Avenue in Pacoima.

Gunmen fired multiple rounds at the Latino man, who was struck several times. He was transported to a local hospital and remains in stable condition, said LAPD Officer Gregory Baek.

Police have arrested a man and two teens believed responsible for shootings Sept. 20 at the San Fernando Gardens housing project in Pacoima that killed a 20-year-old man and a 16-year-old and wounded a 15-year-old.

Juan Chambasis, 22, of Los Angeles was arrested Sept. 21 on suspicion of the slayings and remains in jail with no bail. Two boys, 16 and 17, have also been arrested on suspicion of the slayings, said Detective Pat Barron of LAPD's Foothill Division.

Despite the recent rise in violence, police said the 153 shooting victims in the Valley so far this year represent a 10 percent drop from the 170 last year at this time. Still, the recent string of gun-related attacks is still a major concern, Moore said.

"On one hand we're championing across the Valley the significant reductions in violent crime," Moore said. "And yet we only have to look to the murder of this 4-month-old to be very concerned."

Councilman Dennis Zine said that as far as gang-related violence goes, preventative programs only work so much.

Parents must be vigilant and confront their children suspected of gang involvement from the start, even those appearing on the fringe who are tagging and scrawling signs on apartment buildings, freeway overpasses and street signs, he said.

"Mothers and fathers need to get off their fannies and help out," said Zine.

"Preventative programs have minimal impact. It's about responsibility and saying we're tired of this, and we're not going to take it anymore."

He also urged authorities to take a strong stand against taggers who "may not be in gangs yet, but they will be."

With gang-intervention specialists on contract with the city to focus on designated trouble zones, there's little of this same specialized attention to other areas, such as Panorama City, to stop violence before it ignites, said Councilman Richard Alarc n.

Alarc n is sending a letter to Villaraigosa this week to expand the work, focus and flexibility of city-paid gang-intervention specialists who could do ground work in other areas and help fend off violence.

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_13441648

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Hollywood moves to help Polanski

Hollywood power brokers began mobilizing Monday behind Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski, decrying his weekend arrest in the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl more than three decades ago.

Several French movie organizations have asked Harvey Weinstein, founder of the legendary independent distributor Miramax Films and now head of the Weinstein Co., to lead an effort to get American film professionals to sign a petition protesting the arrest.

"We are calling every filmmaker we can to help fix this terrible situation," Weinstein said in a statement. A spokesperson added that Weinstein has promised to help in any way possible.

Polanski has lived in France since fleeing Los Angeles in 1978 after pleading guilty to statutory rape. He was taken into custody Saturday on an extradition warrant as he got off a plane at the Zurich airport to attend a Swiss film festival.

Polanski's European lawyers have said he plans to fight extradition back to the U.S., where he has yet to be sentenced.

How willing Polanski's American colleagues will be to publicly support him remains to be seen.

"Obviously, my sympathies are with Roman," said Robert Towne, who won an Academy Award for writing the director's "Chinatown" script. "I have great respect and affection for him."

Towne preferred to wait and see how the extradition process in Switzerland proceeded before commenting on the legal case, however.

There are also people in this town who feel Polanski should not be let off the hook, even if his victim, Samantha Geimer, has publicly endorsed dismissing the charge.

"Thirty years have not dimmed my memory of the crime for which this man was convicted," said Paul Petersen, the former "Donna Reed Show" star and president of A Minor Consideration, a nonprofit watchdog group for child performers. "In addition to the crime itself, there is for me the `special circumstances' involved in luring an underage actress, after traditional audition hours, into a situation where he could take advantage of her through the use of drugs and the power of his position.

"Hollywood may have forgiven Mr. Polanski," Peterson said. "I have not."

However willing or reluctant Polanski's supporters in Hollywood may be to voice their opinions now, the entertainment community's general support - of him as an artist, anyway - appears undeniable.

"I think that Hollywood's already come to his rescue," observed John Nolte, editor of the bighollywood.com, a Polanski critic who nonetheless loves "Chinatown," "Rosemary's Baby" and the director's 2002 Academy Award-winner, "The Pianist."

"They gave him an Oscar, many big names are willing to work for him," he said. "That tells me that Hollywood is behind him, either through proactively supporting him or through their silence."

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_13441650

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From the LAPD

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Man Found Dead Inside His Vehicle

Los Angeles: Los Angeles Police are seeking the public's help determining the whereabouts of a gunman who allegedly shot and killed a 47-year-old man on September 24, 2009 in South Los Angeles.

At around 9:50 p.m., officers were dispatched to a death investigation radio call in the 1200 block of West 37th Street.  They found the lifeless body of a man inside his parked black Infinity SUV.  The victim had suffered an apparent gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene. 

The victim's identity is being withheld until family members can be notified.   

The suspect is described only as a Black male.  Detectives have not determined what prompted the shooting. 

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact Criminal Gang Homicide Group Detectives Jim Yoshida and Mike Applegate at 213-485-1383.  During off-hours, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247).  Callers may also text "Crimes" with a cell phone or log on to www.lapdonline.org and click on Web tips. When using a cell phone, all messages should begin with "LAPD."  Tipsters may remain anonymous

September 28, 2009

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Los Angeles Police Department Seeks Help in Finding a 69-Year-Old Mother

Los Angeles: Los Angeles Police Detectives and family members are asking for the public's help in finding a missing person.

Cora Jean Monroe was last seen at her home in the 3800 block of Muirfield Road on September 17, 2009, at around 9 a.m.  According to her daughter, Cora's last contact with family members was around September 1, 2009.    

Monroe is described as a 69-year-old female African American with brown hair and brown eyes.  She is five feet five inches tall and weighs about 130 pounds.  Monroe wears glasses and has a gold filling on her left bottom front tooth.  She was last seen wearing a black scarf, two dark colored shirts, and beige or tan shorts.

Monroe's family is very concerned about her welfare and wants her to return home safely.

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Cora Jean Monroe is asked to call the LAPD Southwest Division Major Assault Crimes Section, Detective Sonny Garcia at 213-485-2588.  After-hours or on weekends, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247).  Callers may also text "crimes" with a cell phone or log on to www.lapdonline.org and click on web tips.  When using a cell phone all messages should begin with "LAPD."  Tipsters may remain anonymous

September 28, 2009

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Traffic Fatality Involving a Pedestrian

On September 26, 2009, at approximately 8:10 P.M., a California Highway Patrol (CHP) black and white patrol unit attempted to stop a 2002 Cadillac sedan traveling southbound 101 Fwy at Parkway Calabasas for a vehicle code violation. The driver, and only occupant of the Cadillac, refused to stop resulting in a vehicle pursuit. The violator exited the 101 Fwy at Topanga Canyon Boulevard to eastbound Ventura Boulevard. The violator made a "U" turn on Ventura Boulevard and drove the Cadillac westbound at a high rate of speed while being pursued by the CHP officer.

As the violator continued westbound on Ventura Boulevard and approached Don Pio Drive,a pedestrian was in the process of walking northbound Don Pio Drive, within the marked east crosswalk.  The violator struck the pedestrian with the Cadillac and fled from the location while being pursued by the CHP officer.  The pedestrian died at the scene.

The pursuit continued westbound to the 23600 block of Ventura Boulevard where the violator rear ended a 2008 Mazda Sport Utility Vehicle with four occupants inside.  The violator continued westbound on Ventura Boulevard when he opened fire on the CHP officer causing an officer involved shooting between the violator and the CHP officer.  Neither the violator nor the officer were injured.  

The violator continued driving westbound on Ventura Boulevard where he collided with a chain link fence just east of Valley Circle Boulevard on the south side of the street.  Hector Vidal  was taken to a local hospital for medical treatment and booked at Van Nuys Jail for 187 (A) PC- Murder and is being held without bail. 

The identification of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of the next of kin.
The investigation is being handled by Robbery Homicide Division and Valley Traffic Division investigators. 

Anyone who may have witnessed, or have information on this incident, is asked to contact the
Los Angeles Police Department at 1-877-LAPD 247 (1-877-527-3247).  For further information contact Lt. Tappan, RHD, at 213-485-2531 or Detective III Bustos, VTD Detectives, at 818-644-8021.

September 28, 2009

http://lapdblog.typepad.com/lapd_blog/

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From the White House

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The UN, Women & Girls

Cash Flow: ICE Cracks Major Cash Smuggling Scheme in Colombia, Mexico

September 28, 2009

ICE and international partners seize more than $41 million in Colombia and Mexico
Largest container bulk cash seizure made in Colombia and the United States

WASHINGTON - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents along with Colombian and Mexican law enforcement officers between Sept. 9 and 18 made the largest bulk cash container seizure in Colombia and the United States - more than $41 million in U.S. currency that was secreted in shipping containers found in ports in Colombia and Mexico. The seizures are part of an ongoing ICE investigation by ICE's Attaché Office in Bogota, Colombia.

"ICE's bilateral cooperation between its foreign law enforcement partners has significantly furthered ICE's mission to disrupt the criminal organizations that are smuggling narcotics into the United States and smuggling bulk cash shipments out, which they use to fund additional criminal activities," said the Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for ICE John Morton. "This seizure of more than $41 million has surely put a dent in the illegal activities of the individuals involved."

"We recognize both the U.S. government and the Mexican authorities as our best allies in the fight against organized crime and thank and congratulate ICE for their support and collaboration," said General Oscar Naranjo Trujillo, director general of the Colombian National Police. "We also praise the dedicated and professional work of 152,000 Colombian policemen that work day and night towards security and coexistence amongst Colombians and the work of the members of the Customs and Tax Police and the Anti-Narcotics Directorate. We are determined to bring to justice the suspected owners of these illegal funds, as well as other drug traffickers that through their illegal activities damage Colombia and its allied countries."

Alfredo Gutierrez, chief of Mexico's Tax Administration Service, said, "The data we collect electronically from the trade community on a regular basis and the data we receive from and crosscheck with our international partners is now processed through highly sophisticated systems and cutting-edge technologies. Our personnel have been trained to make the best of these instruments and the results are there."

• On Sept. 9, Colombian customs inspectors and Colombian National Police (CNP) officers seized $11.2 million in U.S. currency hidden in two shipping containers, each containing 20 big bags filled with ammonium sulfate. Sixteen of the 40 bags contained $700,000 in $20 dollar bill denominations. The containers departed on a vessel from the port of Manzanillo, Mexico, destined to the west coast port of Buenaventura, Colombia. According to Colombian customs inspectors, this seizure is the most cash ever seized by police at a port in Colombia.
• On Sept. 10, a second seizure of U.S. currency estimated at $11.2 million was also seized at the port of Buenaventura.
• Additionally on Sept. 11, ICE Attaché Mexico City special agents reported that information developed by ICE Attaché Bogota agents resulted in a third seizure of U.S. currency estimated at $11 million discovered hidden inside two shipping containers containing sodium sulfate at the Port of Manzanillo, Mexico.
• On Sept. 14, ICE special agents along with Colombian authorities discovered in Buenaventura three additional shipping containers containing approximately $5 million in $100 and $50 dollar bill denominations concealed within bags labeled as sodium sulfate. These shipping containers also originated in Manzanillo.
• On Sept. 18, a second seizure was recovered in the amount of $2.15 million in $100 dollar bill denominations concealed within two containers with similar bags containing sodium sulfate aboard a vessel that arrived in Manzanillo.

The ports of Buenaventura and Manzanillo are key points of a well-known route used for smuggling cocaine northward to Mexico and then on to the United States, and for sending cash back into Colombia.

The ICE Attaché Bogota office is the lead U.S. law enforcement agency in this bulk cash smuggling investigation, with assistance from ICE Attaché Mexico City, the Colombian National Police, Colombian Department of Treasury, Mexican Customs, and the Mexican Assistant Attorney General for Special Investigations and Organized Crime (Siedo).

ICE is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, charged with enforcing a wide array of laws, including those related to financial crime, trade fraud, narcotics smuggling, cash smuggling, and others. ICE has taken a leading role in combating bulk cash smuggling, teaming in 2005, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to launch Operation Firewall, a comprehensive law enforcement operation targeting criminal organizations involved in the smuggling of large quantities of U.S. currency. The ICE Office of International Affairs (OIA) is a critical asset in this mission, responsible for enhancing national security by conducting and coordinating international investigations involving transnational criminal organizations and serving as ICE's liaison to counterparts in local government and law enforcement.

Since its inception in 2005, Operation Firewall efforts have resulted in approximately 524 arrests and 3,275 seizures in the United States and abroad totaling over $260 million. Over $100 million has been seized by foreign authorities. In Jan 2007, Colombia authorities working in conjunction with ICE and other federal authorities found approximately $85 million in U.S. currency, euros and gold bars in five stash houses in Cali, Colombia. This is the largest cash seizure in Colombian history.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0909/090928washingtondc.htm

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September 25, 2009

9 men tied to LA-area gang arrested in ICE drug, weapons trafficking probe
One defendant claims to be Mexican drug cartel hit man

LOS ANGELES - Nine members and associates of a South Los Angeles street gang, including one claiming to be a hit man for a Mexican drug cartel, are in custody on federal drug trafficking and state weapons charges following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The defendants were arrested yesterday at residences in Bell Gardens and Los Angeles by agents assigned to ICE's Special Response Teams. During the operation, agents executed search warrants at those residences as well as at a Bell Gardens warehouse used by the organization to store illegal weapons. During the searches, agents recovered dozens of high-powered weapons, including assault rifles, handguns, silencers, a shotgun and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Providing assistance with yesterday's operation were the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, and officers from the Bell, Huntington Park, Vernon and Long Beach police departments.

The enforcement action caps a nine-month ICE investigation into allegations that members of the "Barrio Evil 13" street gang were involved in narcotics and weapons trafficking. The affidavit filed in support of the arrest and search warrants details more than a dozen occasions where the defendants sold an ICE undercover operative illegal drugs, including heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as ammunition and firearms. Among the weapons purchased by ICE undercover operatives were assault rifles, sawed-off shotguns, a sub-machine gun and a hand grenade, which turned out to be inert.

"The gang members and associates charged in this criminal complaint are alleged to have trafficked not just in drugs, but in weapons, and not just any weapons, but weapons clearly intended for criminal conduct, including an AK-47 assault rifle, a Tec-9 sub-machinegun, a MAC-11 sub-machinegun, and a sawed-off shotgun," said Acting U.S. Attorney George S. Cardona. "The arrests made yesterday eliminate a source of firearms that would otherwise be out on the streets being used to commit additional violent crimes."

One of the defendants arrested yesterday, Henry "Silent" Valenzuela, 27, of Bell Gardens, Calif., told an ICE undercover operative during the investigation that he is a hit man for a Tijuana-based drug cartel. The case affidavit contains excerpts from a secretly recorded conversation where Valenzuela seeks to recruit the undercover operative to carry out "hits" in the Los Angeles area for a $10,000 fee. In that conversation, Valenzuela claims he conducted a "hit" in Barstow, Calif., in early September and has six murder-for-hire contracts outstanding. So far, ICE has been unable to corroborate Valenzuela's murder claim.

"Given the allegations, this street gang's name 'Barrio Evil' is particularly appropriate," said Robert Schoch, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Los Angeles. "When you have members of a criminal organization casually selling high-powered weapons and talking matter-of-factly about murder, you have a serious public safety threat. ICE is using every legal tool and every resource at its disposal to protect our communities from these dangerous organizations."

"We took a number of high caliber firearms out of the hands of gang members whom we allege used them to further their criminal enterprise," said John A. Torres, special agent in charge of ATF's Los Angeles Field Division. "ATF will now trace these firearms and complete ballistics comparisons to determine where they came from and whether they are related to other crimes."

Currently, seven of the defendants are charged by federal criminal complaint with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. The federal defendants will make their initial appearances in U.S. District Court here today. In addition to Valenzuela, they are:

• Sergio Calderon, aka "Lil Silent," 23, of Bell Gardens;
• Javier Avila-Lopez, aka "Padrastro," 40, of Los Angeles;
• Eduardo Ortega-Plascencia, 39, of Los Angeles;
• Margarito Enciso, aka "Tito," 27, of Long Beach;
• Everado Venegas-Lumbreras, aka "Lalo," 38, of Bell Gardens; and
• Silverio Palma-Carlin, 31, of Jalisco, Mexico.

Two other defendants were taken into custody yesterday on state charges. They are:

• Francisco Arellano, 32, of Nayarit, Mexico; and
• Alfredo Rutillo-Medina, 27, of Nayarit, Mexico.

ICE received significant assistance with this investigation from the Bell Police Department, as well as from ATF and several other local law enforcement agencies, including the Los Angeles, Vernon and Long Beach police departments.

"We're thrilled about the results of this joint operation," said Bell Police Chief Randy G. Adams. "As a result of our efforts, we've kept countless dangerous weapons out of the hands of criminals, saving untold lives in the process."

The investigation into the Barrio Evil 13 street gang is part of an ongoing initiative by ICE's National Gang Unit called Operation Community Shield. Through Operation Community Shield, ICE is using its powerful immigration and customs authorities in a coordinated, national campaign against criminal street gangs in the United States. Since Operation Community Shield began in February 2005, ICE agents nationwide have arrested more than 13,000 gang members and associates linked to more than 900 different gangs. More than 150 of those arrested were gang leaders.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0909/090925losangeles.htm

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From Ron Kaye

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It's Time for Action and Saturday's NC "Action Summit" Is the Starting Point