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From the Los Angeles Times

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Dismembered bodies, warped minds

The extreme violence produced by the drug war is seen as a form of social disfigurement in which Mexican values get more distorted each time a mutilated body is found.

By Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times

November 8, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City

Pablo Szmulewicz, a Mexico City artist, remembers the pitch from the newspaper hawker who held a front page with chopped-up human bodies.

"He told me: 'Buy it — it's a good story,'" Szmulewicz said, recalling the encounter that took place three months ago in the central state of Morelos. "I'm saying, 'But … these are people .'"

Szmulewicz knew he had found a terrible inspiration. When he got home, he downloaded death-scene images from the Internet and went to work.

The result is a series of paintings depicting discarded bodies, bound and blindfolded and lying in heaps; rows of severed heads, arrayed on shelves and eerily lifelike, are based on photos of real victims, bruises and all.

The 55-year-old painter has no idea where he will exhibit his new work, a departure from his favored themes, such as migration. But he hopes to challenge what he sees as a growing societal callousness to the carnage that is Mexico's drug war.

"People are losing the ability to be shocked, and when you lose the capacity for shock, it creates an opening for worse things," Szmulewicz said. "The reality is so harsh, so heartbreaking, that people look the other way to survive."

Bodies are dangled headless from highway overpasses. Heads turn up in ice chests and trash bags. Corpses are found marked by torture wounds and taunting, hand-scrawled messages. Body parts, rearranged for humiliating effect, are left for all to see.

Mexicans have watched the carnage — at first with horror and disbelief, but increasingly with a stunned fatigue as drug-trafficking gangs try to one-up rivals or scare authorities with new heights of savagery.

Some worry that people could adapt to depravity as the new norm: The nation's health secretary, Jose Angel Cordova, said last week that, four years into the drug war, Mexico risked becoming a country where "killing someone can be seen as normal or natural."

The violence bleeds into Mexican life.

Grade-school children draw severed heads and point-blank executions of blindfolded victims. A recent billboard campaign for a life insurance company in Mexico City warned that "people are dying who weren't dying before." The new feature film "El Infierno," or "Hell," has been stirring uneasy laughter with its all-too-real depiction of small-town drug killers lopping off limbs.

"My concern is that there is no opposition to the barbarity, to the insanity," Szmulewicz said. "It can't be part of our daily landscape."

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The question, printed on a snow-white banner, is plaintive and scolding at once. "If crime is organized," the banner asks, "why aren't we?"

The sign is among a series of nearly 100 anti-violence banners that have popped up, anonymously, in and around Mexico City this fall, posted by a group working in secret and the dead of night.

Taking a page from the narco-traffickers, those behind the undercover effort hang their banners from footbridges and highway overpasses for maximum effect. Last month, they placed a "Why aren't we?" banner on the same bridge in the city of Cuernavaca where hit men had hung the corpses of victims.

"How many have to die for us to get together and do something?" a person identifying himself as Arturo Calzada wrote on the group's blog. The group, which calls itself Be United Mexicans, did not respond to an interview request submitted via Twitter.

That it has to act with such stealth is a sign of how difficult the group's task is likely to be. Mexicans may be jittery, but, given their history of corrupt, top-down rule, they are also deeply distrustful of the authorities and reluctant to take a stand.

Instead, many avert their eyes and mutter, " El que nada debe, nada teme " — roughly translated, a person who doesn't get involved has nothing to fear.

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When President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and announced he was going after the drug cartels with full force, extreme violence was already part of the landscape. But it was still rare.

People were aghast when gunmen dumped five human heads on the dance floor of a bar in Michoacan in 2006. Since then, more than 600 people have been beheaded as feuding among drug factions intensified in the face of the government crackdown. Now decapitations often garner little more than summary mention on the TV news or in the country's main newspapers.

"It makes me afraid for the country we are constructing," said Raul Villamil Uriarte, a social psychologist. "I feel depressed. I feel ashamed. I think the generation of my children won't have a country that is peaceful and calm."

Villamil, 53, said the drumbeat of extreme violence has paralyzed Mexico with a kind of collective post-traumatic stress.

"We haven't recovered from what happened yesterday when something even worse happens today," he said.

Villamil said he sees the mutilation of bodies as a form of social disfigurement: Mexican values get warped a bit each time a beheaded or dismembered corpse is found. The result is an "upside-down world" in which killers assert their legitimacy through awful acts and repudiate "all the rest of us mistaken idiots who want to stay on the right path," he said.

"We never imagined heads, decapitated, and then pretty soon they appeared. Then you said, 'OK, what's next?' And there are decapitated bodies, with the heads of pigs in place of their own heads," Villamil said. "It keeps going faster and faster."

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As the public response gets more muted, the hit men have turned to steadily grislier methods to draw notice for their exploits.

"Organized crime — in the cruelest way it can — is sending a message," said Cuitlahuac Cardoso, director of the coroner's office in Cuernavaca, where this year bodies have been scattered in pieces and hung headless from bridges. "It is sending a message to society. It is sending a message to the authorities. It is sending a message to rivals."

Messages need a messenger, of course, and often it is Mexico's media, which offer wide, if indirect, exposure even when bodies are deposited late at night. The country has a long tradition of publishing gory photographs of killings and accidents in its crime-oriented tabloids. But the drug war has thrust equally gruesome images onto the news pages of mainstream media, stoking debate over how much is too much.

Hector Aguilar Camin, who writes a column in the daily Milenio newspaper, publicly upbraided editors in April for running a photograph of a pile of bodies on the front page. He said such displays cheapen traditional journalism and distort reality by creating the impression that the violence is more prevalent than it is.

"Violence has imposed its barbarous law and turned the media into allies of its evil message," he wrote, urging restraint.

But Aguilar conceded his cause was probably quixotic, in part because it was likely to be viewed as a call for censorship. "I understand this is a doomed argument," he said.

Still, hit men don't need newspapers or prime-time television. The violent images are increasingly showing up in newer media: on YouTube and narco-related blogs, which gangs use to threaten and taunt one another.

A video that has made the rounds by e-mail shows masked men interrogating a rival foot soldier, blindfolded and bound. At the end, with camera running and the subject alive, the questioner pulls out a knife and saws the prisoner's head off.

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The reality of rampant brutality is itself an illustration of a kind of growing acceptance, at least within a segment of Mexican society. But, it turns out, even hit men need to be conditioned to new depths.

An accused former enforcer for the notorious cartel known as La Familia told police this year that he took newcomers to a far-off spot in the Michoacan hills for lessons. They learned how to behead and dismember people — using real victims.

The suspect, former state police officer Miguel Ortiz Miranda, said in a videotaped statement that peer pressure worked on reluctant trainees. After watching others cut into victims, they eventually joined in.

In a matter-of-fact tone, Ortiz said the dead were dismembered with a foot-long butcher's knife and then burned over a pit fire until no trace remained.

"It's not difficult," he explained, saying he had no qualms.

"Nothing," he said. "You don't feel anything."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-depravity-20101109,0,1563812,print.story

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More violence feared in Mexico following killing of Gulf cartel kingpin

A home in the Tamaulipas city of Reynosa damaged in gun battles earlier this year.

Northeastern Mexico is bracing for a surge in violence following the killing of a notorious drug kingpin Friday by the Mexican navy. Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, alias "Tony Tormenta," was killed in a spectacular three-hour shootout in Matamoros, a city just across the border from Brownsville, Texas, in the Tamaulipas state that Cardenas' Gulf Cartel has long dominated.

The Gulf cartel is locked in mortal combat with its one-time military arm, the Zetas. The demise of Cardenas, one of the Gulf's top two leaders, may at least temporarily embolden the Zetas , an especially ruthless group that broke away from the Gulf cartel this year and is fighting to take control of more territory and illicit businesses. Alejandro Poire, the Mexican government's spokesman for the drug war, said Monday that a period of "instability" within the drug-trafficking organizations is likely in the short term, but that overall they are being weakened. Here is a video of his interview with local television (link in Spanish).

Though not everyone agrees with that assessment, already a kind of psychosis is seizing Matamoros and other cities in Tamaulipas. The state government over the weekend warned residents, via Twitter, to stay at home to avoid getting caught as gun battles continued to erupt. And on Monday, schools cancelled classes and parents kept their children at home amid fears (false alarms, in the end) of bombs (link in Spanish).

Even before Cardenas' killing, much of Tamaulipas has been living in fear of the cartels, as this special Times report from Reynosa recounted in Sunday editions.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2010/11/more-violence-to-follow-killing-of-mexican-kingpin.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LaPlaza+%28La+Plaza%29

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Officers from the California Highway Patrol and Riverside Police Department stand in silence in Fairmount Park in Riverside while searching for evidence in the fatal shooting of Officer Ryan Bonaminio. The Iraq war veteran was gunned down while chasing the driver of a big-rig tractor.

Riverside police officer is shot to death Ryan Bonaminio did two tours in Iraq before returning to his hometown and his dream job. The Riverside police officer was killed by an unidentified suspect who remains at large. by Phil Willon and Stephen Ceasar Los Angeles Times November 9, 2010 Reporting from Riverside and Los Angeles Ryan Bonaminio walked into Ramona High School as a shy, greenhorn freshman and left as a Marine Corps ROTC platoon leader, charging head-on into the U.S. Army and two tours in Iraq before returning to his hometown and his dream job. But his career as a Riverside police officer was cut short. Bonaminio, who would have celebrated his 28th birthday Thanksgiving Day, was shot and killed Sunday night next to a dark roadside by an unidentified suspect who remains at large.

"He was a good kid. It's a big loss to this community, especially when you're talking about someone who went into harm's way in a combat zone, then came home to protect your city and gets killed in his own backyard,'' said Sgt. Maj. Henry David Jr., his ROTC instructor. "It's pretty tough to deal with.''

Bonaminio, a four-year police officer, was on routine patrol about 9:45 p.m. when, with lights and siren on, he tried to pull over a stolen semi-truck believed to be involved in an earlier hit-and-run accident near the 60 Freeway. The driver of the trailerless cab sped down Market Street before pulling over in front of Riverside's Fairmount Park and running down a grassy field.

Shortly afterward, Bonaminio pulled over and ran after the suspect. Residents in nearby homes heard gunfire.

"It sounded like three pistol shots,'' said Shirley Wolfe, who lives a block away and heard the gunfire over the noise of her television.

Her husband went outside to investigate but couldn't see anything. The couple soon heard sirens as police swarmed the scene.

When backup officers arrived, they found Bonaminio on the ground bleeding from a gunshot wound. He was transported to Riverside Community Hospital, where he died, authorities said.

Assistant Police Chief Chris Vicino said the truck had only a front license plate, so Bonaminio was unable to radio it in. The officer never fired his gun, police said.

On Monday morning, police scoured the park grounds for evidence. Two police dogs and a volunteer crew with metal detectors assisted in the search.

Later, police released a photo of the suspect, whom they described as a black male in his mid-30s to mid-40s, about 6 feet 1 or 6 feet 2, with a slender build and possible facial hair. He was last seen wearing dark clothing and a light-colored baseball cap.

The photo was taken by a video camera inside the officer's patrol car, said Police Chief Sergio Diaz. It was taken after the suspect shot the officer and shows him as he is getting back into the cab to return it to the rental yard where it had been stolen, Diaz said.

"We're putting out the photo in hopes that somebody will see the suspect and do the right thing," Diaz said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday issued a statement offering his condolences to Bonaminio's family, and he ordered flags at the Capitol to be flown at half-staff.

A few miles to the west, family and friends descended on the modest home of the slain officer's parents, Joseph and Geraldine Bonaminio. The officer's brother and sister also live in the area. The family, when reached by telephone, declined to comment.

John Enriquez, Bonaminio's best friend, said the family was taking the news very hard. His mother was doing "terrible, that was her baby,'' he said.

Enriquez, an officer with the UC Riverside Police Department, said he met Bonaminio at the police academy in 2006.

"Army man and police officer. That's all he ever wanted to be," Enriquez said. "He's just really committed to work and working hard. He loved his family. Everyone is real close. He didn't have a large extended family, but he was close with his immediate family."

Bonaminio loved his dogs, Enriquez said: Misters and Hank, a pug and a Boston terrier. He also held season tickets for the Anaheim Ducks.

Bonaminio graduated from Ramona High School in 2000. He was a military police officer in the Army, serving in Baghdad and Mosul, Iraq, as well as in Kuwait City and Hohenfels, Germany. When he left the military to join the Riverside Police Department in 2006, he remained in the Army Reserves and was called back to duty in Iraq in 2008-09.

Bonaminio's neighbors, though shaken by the news, said they knew little about him since the officer moved into the suburban Riverside community known as Orange Terrace about six months ago. His home was empty Monday afternoon, with a pumpkin outside his front door and a newspaper in the driveway. The porch light was still on.

"He was never here. He was working the night shift and was probably sleeping during the day," said Lily Velazquez, 25, who lives next door. "We just saw him enough to say hello and goodbye."

Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to call Det. Ron Sanfilippo at (951) 353-7105 or Det. Greg Rowe at (951) 353-7130.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-riverside-officer-20101109,0,3903510.story

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Riverside police release photo of man suspected of killing officer

Riverside police have released a photo of the man suspected of fatally shooting an officer.

Officer Ryan Bonaminio, 27, was killed Sunday night by an unidentified man who was driving a stolen big-rig cab and who was believed to be involved in an earlier hit-and-run accident.

The gunman, who remains at large, is described as a black male in his mid-30s to 40s, 6-1 or 6-2, with a slender build and possible facial hair, wearing dark clothing and a light-colored baseball cap.

He is armed with a handgun, police said.

“We're putting out the photo in hopes that somebody will see the suspect and do the right thing,” said Police Chief Sergio Diaz.

The incident began when police received a call about a hit-and-run accident at the 60 Freeway and Market Street about 9:45 p.m., Brennan said.

Bonaminio was on routine patrol when he tried to stop the truck to question the driver about the incident, police said.

The trucker failed to stop despite the patrol car's flashing lights and siren, police said. The trucker eventually pulled over in front of nearby Fairmount Park. He got out of the vehicle and ran, with Bonaminio running after him, police said.

When other officers arrived at the scene, they found Bonaminio on the ground with a gunshot injury, police said. He was taken to Riverside Hospital, where he died of his injuries.

The photo of the man was taken by a video camera inside the officer's car, said Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz. The picture was taken after the man shot the officer and as he was getting back into the cab to return the vehicle to the rental yard where it was stolen, Diaz said.

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

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Program seeks to aid hard-core homeless

Plan drafted by a civic task force hopes to slash costs by getting the chronically homeless into housing. But Supervisor Antonovich calls the controversial approach 'warehousing without healing.'

By Alexandra Zavis, Times Staff Writer

November 9, 2010

Prominent business leaders are putting their weight behind a plan that they say could make a major dent in homelessness in Los Angeles County, embracing a strategy that will face significant political opposition.

The blueprint they plan to unveil Tuesday seeks to put a permanent roof over the heads of the most entrenched street dwellers, then provide them as much counseling and treatment as they will use.

Because the chronically homeless take up a disproportionate share of resources, the plan's authors argue that focusing on housing them will ultimately free up services for the many more people who need only temporary help to get back on their feet.

"For too long, Los Angeles County has been the homeless capital of the nation," Jerry Neuman and Renee White Fraser, co-chairs of the Los Angeles Business Leaders Task Force on Homelessness, wrote in an introductory letter. "It need not be this way."

Representatives of 22 organizations — including JP Morgan Chase, NBC Universal and Caltech — formed the task force in September 2009 after United Way of Greater L.A. approached the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce about engaging business leaders to find solutions to homelessness.

The task force spent 10 months meeting with local and national experts and visiting programs that have reduced homelessness in cities such as Denver and Santa Monica.

The key, task force members say, will be getting dozens of local institutions unified on the project. The group is asking county and city authorities, social service organizations, law enforcement agencies and faith-based groups to sign on to a detailed plan they call "Home for Good" by Dec. 1.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who initiated a pilot version of the housing-first strategy known as Project 50, said he gave the plan high marks.

"It is ambitious. It is doable," he said. "I hope the Board of Supervisors will endorse the plan."

But the approach is controversial. Most chronically homeless people have serious physical, mental or substance abuse problems. Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich has complained about spending tax dollars to provide housing to individuals who continue to abuse drugs and avoid treatment, calling the approach "warehousing without healing."

"The supervisor won't agree to any plan to deal with homelessness that does not have mandatory mental health and substance abuse treatment as a component," said Antonovich's spokesman, Tony Bell.

Neuman, a partner at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, said local authorities spend $650 million a year on the chronically homeless, who are heavy users of hospital emergency rooms, jail cells and other crisis services. The figure accounts for about three-quarters of annual spending on homeless services, although the chronically homeless make up only a quarter of 48,000 or more people sleeping on the streets, in cars and in shelters on any given night in Los Angeles County.

"What we found is that if you can take those people into permanent supportive housing, you can save about 40% of those dollars," Neuman said, citing two local studies.

Proponents of the housing-first approach argue that people are more likely to stick to treatment regimens when they don't have to worry about where they will be sleeping. And if they relapse, social workers know where to find them.

When Project 50 staff found 63-year-old George Givens on the streets of skid row, he had untreated schizophrenia. But since moving into a downtown studio apartment, he collects his medicine every morning from a nurse practitioner who works in the next building.

It took the staff more than two years to persuade Givens to come in off the streets, where he had survived for a decade by collecting cans, cardboard and bottles to recycle. He said others who offered to help him had let him down. But he said he does not miss "being out in the rain and the cold and the pickpockets."

The county program, which initially targeted the 50 people most likely to die on the streets of skid row, has housed 107 people since January 2008. Of the 68 housed in the first two years, 51 remain in the program, seven died, four were incarcerated and six dropped out.

By reallocating an average of $230 million in existing resources each year, the task force argues that by 2015, it would be possible to house all of the estimated 12,000 people who have been living on county streets for more than a year. Half would be accommodated in existing units of supportive housing, which turn over at a rate of 15% to 20% a year. The rest would be provided through new construction, rehabilitation of existing buildings and the creation of mobile teams to provide services to scattered sites.

An additional 6,000 newly homeless veterans could also be housed, using resources from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, according to the task force

Helen Berberian, Antonovich's social services deputy, questioned whether it was fair to set aside housing subsidies for the chronically homeless, when other vulnerable people had been waiting years for them.

"The sad thing is that we just don't have enough housing resources, period," she said.

The plan also relies on communities to share not only data collected on their homeless populations but also the burden of housing the county's homeless.

"I think NIMBYism is one of the greatest issues we are going to be tackling," Neuman said. "But the reality is we can create a system which has a safety net for all those people and ends chronic homelessness, so nobody has to be on the streets for a year or longer."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-homeless-roadmap-20101109,0,240462,print.story

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EDITORIAL

Solving homelessness will require cooperation

Los Angeles County has seen a revolving door of ideas, initiatives and proposals. The real solution will be the one that gets the myriad government agencies, nonprofits and service providers to march in lock step.

November 9, 2010

Los Angeles remains the nation's homelessness capital, with almost 48,000 people living around the county on streets, in cars and in shelters, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority. About a fourth of them are chronically homeless, burdened in many cases by physical and mental ailments that make it hard for them to reintegrate into society.

The magnitude and intractability of the problem haven't stopped policymakers and homeless advocates from offering plan after plan for improving the situation, but none has made much of a dent in the homeless population. On Tuesday, yet another group will weigh in: the Business Leaders Task Force on Homelessness, a project organized by the local branches of the Chamber of Commerce and the United Way. There is much to recommend in the plan and we wish the group well. But unless the task force draws the unflinching support of government, service providers and volunteer groups, its plan will probably suffer the same fate as the many that came before it.

The task force's goal is to end homelessness in the county, not just manage it. To do so, it proposes a rapid increase in permanent supportive housing over five years. Such housing, which offers ready access to treatment, training and counseling, would be provided for all of the county's chronically homeless and homeless veterans.

It's ambitious, yet the plan isn't new or radical. Instead, it reflects an emerging consensus around the country that getting the homeless into permanent housing should be the top priority. It also aligns with the county's Project 50 initiative and the Obama administration's stated goal of getting all veterans and chronically homeless off the streets. And the biggest selling point, some advocates say, is that these efforts save money in the long term because they reduce the amount spent on shelters, emergency rooms, jails and other crisis services.

The most obvious challenge will be freeing about $230 million annually to provide permanent supportive housing for all the chronically homeless over the next five years. Just as big a hurdle, though, could be the lack of coordination among the many layers of government and the private and nonprofit service providers that play a role in combating homelessness. Cooperation has been improving, yet the task force will still have to sell its plan to multiple factions that don't always see eye to eye on the nature of the problem, let alone the solution. Here's hoping that the clarity and ambition provided by the plan doesn't get lost in the struggle to implement it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-homeless-20101109,0,3865704,print.story

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L.A. County Sheriff's Department, coroner's office to investigate handling of Mitrice Richardson's remains

Los Angeles County sheriff's and coroner's officials have agreed to launch an inquiry into the handling of Mitrice Richardson's remains, which a coroner's official said were removed from a ravine without his department's permission.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said in an interview with The Times that he was “very clear” with sheriff's officials that they should not remove Richardson's remains until coroner's investigators arrived or clearance was granted.

A sheriff's spokesman acknowledged that deputies removed Richardson's body from the scene without the coroner's permission, but said they did so because detectives were concerned that it was getting dark and that animals might destroy the remains.

Richardson, 24, drew national media attention in September 2009 when she disappeared after being released from the sheriff's Lost Hills/Malibu station about midnight without her car, purse or cellphone. Nearly 11 months after her disappearance, her remains were spotted in a remote Malibu Canyon ravine.

Initially, sheriff's officials believed that only a skull and a few other bones were there. Winter said that at that point, sheriff's officials were told they could move the bones only after coroner's officials reviewed photos of the scene and gave clearance. Sheriff's officials said permission was granted to remove partial remains.

But when an entire skeleton was found, sheriff's officials proceeded without clearance to move all the remains. Winter said he told sheriff's officials not to do so, but a sheriff's captain said that message never got to deputies on the scene.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the goal of the inquiry is to “minimize such miscommunications … in the future.”

“These kinds of situations do occur and we want to minimize those so we don't have any miscommunications, if that's possible,” Whitmore said.

The inquiry will be overseen by the Office of Independent Review, the sheriff's watchdog agency. It will include interviews and a review of the day's timeline, Whitmore said.

”This is not a delaying tactic. This is not going to take forever. It'll be thorough but also expeditious,” he said, adding that the goal is to make any findings public.

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

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Death sentence in murders of mother and daughters

Steven Hayes raped and killed a Connecticut woman and tied her girls, 11 and 17, to their beds while the house burned.

By Alaine Griffin and Josh Kovner, Hartford Courant

November 9, 2010

Reporting from New Haven, Conn.

A jury Monday sentenced a Connecticut man to death for the murders of a mother and her two daughters in their home three years ago.

Steven Hayes, 47, was sentenced on six counts, including killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17.

Hayes looked straight ahead — as he has throughout the trial — as the jury of seven women and five men issued their sentence after 17 hours of deliberations.

Outside the courthouse after the sentencing, Hawke-Petit's father, the Rev. Richard Hawke, said, "There are some people who do not deserve to live in God's world."

Dr. William Petit Jr., who survived the attack on his family, said, "This is a verdict for justice." But as the verdict was read, "I was really thinking of the tremendous loss. … I was sad for the loss we have all suffered," he said.

"Probably many of you have kids," Petit said, pausing to choke back tears. "Michaela was an 11-year-old little girl. She was tortured and killed in her own bedroom, surrounded by her stuffed animals."

Hayes was convicted Oct. 5 of breaking into the Petit home in 2007, beating Petit and tying up and torturing the family as Hayes and another man, identified by prosecutors as Joshua Komisarjevsky, ransacked the home for hours looking for cash and valuables.

Testimony showed that Hayes forced Hawke-Petit to go to the bank to withdraw money. During that time, according to testimony, Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted Michaela.

When Hawke-Petit and Hayes returned from the bank, Hayes raped and strangled Hawke-Petit. The men tied the girls to their beds, poured gasoline on or around them and set the house on fire before they fled, according to testimony. Hayley and Michaela died of smoke inhalation.

Komisarjevsky, 30, is scheduled to stand trial next year. He also faces the death penalty if convicted.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-na-connecticut-home-invasion-20101109,0,959022.story?track=rss

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2 charged with murder in shooting death of 5-year-old boy

The suspected gang members each face one count of murder in the shooting of Aaron Shannon Jr. in a South L.A. backyard on Halloween. Both have been held on $1-million bail since their arrests.

By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times

November 9, 2010

Two suspected gang members have been charged with fatally shooting a 5-year-old boy in a South Los Angeles backyard, where he was playing in his Spider-Man costume on Halloween.

Leonard Hall Jr., 21, and Marcus Denson, 18, alleged members of the Kitchen Crips gang, each face one count of murder for the killing of Aaron Shannon Jr. and two counts of willful attempted murder for shooting his uncle and grandfather.

Hall is believed to be the gunman, according to court documents.

Prosecutors allege the shooting was to benefit a "criminal street gang." Both suspects have been held on $1-million bail since their arrests Thursday and Friday by Los Angeles police.

Deputy Police Chief Pat Gannon said the suspects crossed into a rival gang's territory looking for someone — anyone — to shoot as payback for a shooting earlier this year.

"They were not targeting any one individual," Gannon said. "These are violent people with no sense of how their violence affects other people, including a young, innocent boy."

Gannon said tips from the community, including gang members, led to the arrests.

Hall is on parole after being convicted of possession of a controlled substance, officials said. Jail records show he also was arrested Oct. 15 on suspicion of robbery. As part of the conditions of his parole, he is forbidden from associating with the Kitchen Crips, according to a law enforcement source.

Aaron was playing in his new Spider-Man costume when the gunman opened fire, striking him in the head. His uncle was hit in the leg and his grandfather on the wrist.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-halloween-shooting-20101109,0,5938619.story?track=rss

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From the New York Times

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Challenge Heard on Move to Kill Qaeda-Linked Cleric

WASHINGTON — A federal judge heard a legal challenge on Monday to the Obama administration's decision to authorize the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, even as Mr. Awlaki, the American-born cleric tied to Al Qaeda and now hiding in Yemen, called for new attacks on the United States in a video posted to the Web.

Judge John D. Bates, of the district court here, called the case “extraordinary and unique,” and he pressed Justice Department lawyers to explain why the government needs a court warrant to eavesdrop on an American overseas but not to kill one.

But Judge Bates also questioned whether Mr. Awlaki, who has rejected the legitimacy of American institutions, would approve of the lawsuit filed on his behalf by his father, Nasser al-Awlaki. The elder Mr. Awlaki is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

“What is it that should lead me to believe that he wants to bring this case?” Judge Bates asked.

The lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, Jameel Jaffer of the A.C.L.U., said the question was whether the government has the power to kill any American citizen it labels as a terrorist without review by the courts. “If the Fourth and Fifth Amendments mean anything at all, surely they mean there are limits to the government's power to use force against its own citizens,” Mr. Jaffer said.

But the government's lead attorney, Douglas Letter, argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed on multiple procedural grounds without consideration of questions about authorized killings. He said the elder Mr. Awlaki, a former Yemeni minister of agriculture, had no legal standing to bring a case on behalf of his son. Even if he did, Mr. Letter said, the case involves secret security matters the court is not permitted to examine, and the president has sole power over such killings.

If Mr. Awlaki is concerned about being killed, Mr. Letter said, he need only surrender to the authorities. “If he does present himself, he's under no danger of the U.S. government using lethal force against him,” Mr. Letter said.

Mr. Letter also questioned why Mr. Awlaki, if he is able to release videos and articles on the Internet, could not have filed a lawsuit without the intervention of his father. The judge is expected to rule on whether the case can go forward later this year.

In an apparent coincidence, a 23-minute video showing Mr. Awlaki speaking in Arabic was posted on the Internet on Monday. An excerpt from the video had been released Oct. 23, and it made no reference to the two parcel bombs shipped by Al Qaeda's branch in Yemen and intercepted Oct. 29 by counterterrorism officials in Dubai and Britain.

Mr. Awlaki, who is thought to be hiding in southern Yemen, is believed to play an active part in the Yemeni branch of the terrorist network known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The group on Friday claimed responsibility for the failed parcel bomb plot.

In the new video, Mr. Awlaki appears at a desk wearing traditional Yemeni garb, including a ceremonial dagger, and says no special clerical ruling is required to kill Americans. “Don't consult with anyone in fighting the Americans; fighting the devil doesn't require consultation or prayers or seeking divine guidance,” Mr. Awlaki said.

Also in the video, Mr. Awlaki inveighs against Arab leaders who cooperate with the West, and he calls on religious scholars to declare such leaders infidels, making them legitimate targets for assassination. “Kings, emirs and presidents are now not qualified to lead the nation, or even a flock of sheep,” he said. “If the leaders are corrupt, the religious scholars have the responsibility to lead the nation.”

On Saturday, a Yemeni judge called for Mr. Awlaki's arrest, a few days after he failed to show up at a trial.

Yemen has been under strong American pressure to do something about Mr. Awlaki, particularly since the discovery of the cargo plot. The cleric, born in New Mexico, spent much of his life in the United States before returning to Yemen in 2004.

American officials believe his eloquent sermons play an important role in recruiting jihadists around the world, and he was added to the C.I.A.'s target list after intelligence officials concluded that he had played a role in the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner last Dec. 25.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/world/middleeast/09awlaki.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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At Legal Fringe, Empty Houses Go to the Needy

NORTH LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Save Florida Homes Inc. and its owner, Mark Guerette, have found foreclosed homes for several needy families here in Broward County, and his tenants could not be more pleased. Fabian Ferguson, his wife and two children now live a two-bedroom home they have transformed from damaged and abandoned to full and cozy.

There is just one problem: Mr. Guerette is not the owner. Yet.

In a sign of the odd ingenuity that has grown from the real estate collapse, he is banking on an 1869 Florida statute that says the bundle of properties he has seized will be his if the owners do not claim them within seven years.

A version of the same law was used in the 1850s to claim possession of runaway slaves, though Mr. Guerette, 47, a clean-cut mortgage broker, sees his efforts as heroic. “There are all these properties out there that could be used for good,” he said.

The North Lauderdale authorities, though, see him as a crook. He is scheduled to go on trial in December on fraud charges in a case that, along with a handful of others in Florida and in other states, could determine whether maintaining a property and paying taxes on it is enough to lead to ownership.

Legal scholars say the concept is old — rooted in Renaissance England, when agricultural land would sometimes go fallow, left untended by long-lost heirs. But it is also common. All 50 states allow for so-called adverse possession, with the time to forge a kind of common-law marriage with property varying from a few years (in most states) to several decades (in New Jersey).

The statute generally requires that properties be maintained openly and continuously, which usually means paying property taxes and utility bills.

It is not clear how many people are testing the idea, but lawyers say that do-it-yourself possession cases have been popping up all over the country — and, they note, these self-proclaimed owners play an odd role in a real-estate mess that never seems to end. Though they may cringe at the analogy, as squatters with bank accounts, these adverse possessors are like leeches, and it can be difficult to tell at times whether they are cleaning a wound already there, or making it worse.

Either way, Florida is where they thrive.

Many residents of the Sunshine State have grown accustomed to living beside a home left vacant for years. Now hundreds of these mold-filled caverns, their appliances long ago spirited off, are being claimed by strangers.

“There are all kinds of ways the people try to manipulate the system to their own financial gain,” said Jack McCabe, an independent real estate analyst with McCabe Research and Consulting. “And you are going to see it here because Florida is the capital of real estate fraud.”

Mr. Guerette, who now faces up to 15 years in prison, insists that his business is legitimate and moral. He said he got started last year, driving around working-class neighborhoods in Palm Beach and Broward Counties, looking for a particular kind of home: not just those with overgrown lawns and broken windows, but houses with a large orange sticker from the county reading “public nuisance.”

The stickers signaled owners out of touch: the county or city was unable to reach them.

Mr. Guerette filed court claims on around 100 of these properties, which appear to be in the process of foreclosure. Then he chose 20 that could be most easily renovated and sent letters to the owners and their banks — presumably overwhelmed — to make them aware of his plans.

Florida does not require notification. One state lawmaker tried and failed to close that loophole last year with a bill that never passed. But it hardly mattered. Nineteen of the owners and their banks did not respond, Mr. Guerette said.

So he set about fixing up the unclaimed properties. In some cases, he just mowed the lawn and replaced stolen air conditioners or broken windows; in other cases, like with Mr. Ferguson, he let tenants make improvements in lieu of rent.

At his peak last year, he said he managed 17 homes with renters, some of whom he found on Craigslist, others through a Christian ministry in Margate, Fla.

Copies of leases show Mr. Guerette included an addendum noting that he was not the legal owner. Tenants like Mr. Ferguson and his family, who had been homeless before moving in last year and paying $289 a month, see Mr. Guerette as a savior.

And neighbors generally agree. “There is no telling who was in and out of that house,” said Rawle Thomas, who lives next door to Mr. Ferguson and his family. “I like them, and I'd much rather have someone in there than the house empty.”

In other cases, though, adverse possession has been more aggressive and problematic. In Palm Beach County, Carl Heflin spent a year in jail awaiting trial on fraud, trespassing and burglary charges. But after accepting a plea agreement and the rejection of his adverse possession claims, he was arrested again on charges of trying to collect back rents on houses he had tried to possess.

“The whole time he was harassing us and threatened to burn the house down with my kids in it,” said Misty Hall, a single mother of two who rented a home from Mr. Heflin.

Sam Goren, city attorney for North Lauderdale, said any benefits were outweighed by a simple fact that adverse possessors often overlook: they are trespassing.

Michael Allan Wolf, a real estate expert at the University of Florida law school, said adverse possessors also disrupt the chain of title. Rightful owners end up having to evict tenants. The time between foreclosure and legitimate resale may be extended.

Even when adverse possessors help stabilize neighborhoods, “It is not an effective or efficient cure for the foreclosure crisis in Florida,” Professor Wolf said.

Mr. Guerette says his goals are more charitable. After several marriages, six children and some minor trouble with the law, he said, he is now a born-again Christian who sees his new company as a way to make an honest living, and solve a dire need.

His tenants confirmed that after he was arrested in April, he told them they could stop paying rent. Even if he is not allowed to keep taking homes, he said, why should needy people not be matched with homes left to decay?

“There are over 4,000 homeless in Broward, and the number is growing all the time,” he said. “I thought I could use these homes and put people into them. It could be a good thing.”

He added: “It's not rocket science.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/us/09foreclosure.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Flier Patience Wears Thin at Checkpoints

As the Transportation Security Administration scrambles to address vulnerabilities in procedures for screening cargo, it is facing growing criticism from travel industry groups over the escalating security measures for passengers.

In recent weeks, representatives from the International Air Transport Association, the U.S. Travel Association, the Allied Pilots Association and British Airways have criticized the T.S.A., saying it adds intrusive and time-consuming layers of scrutiny at airport checkpoints, without effectively addressing legitimate security concerns.

The U.S. Travel Association, in fact, is worried that the more onerous screening process will discourage air travel.

“The system is broken, it's extremely flawed and it's absurd that we all sit back and say we can't do anything about it,” said Geoff Freeman, executive vice president of the association. The group has convened a panel of transportation leaders to recommend a better way to balance security with a more efficient and honed screening process.

Travel industry representatives say they are primarily concerned that security procedures unnecessarily burden the vast majority of travelers and crew members. The government, they argue, should instead be using intelligence to develop a risk-based approach to screening passengers.

Specifically, they point to the new body scanners that are replacing metal detectors — which have raised privacy and health concerns, as well as prompted legal challenges — and the more invasive pat-downs, which have set off complaints about disrespectful treatment by agents.

“I think people want to say enough is enough, but they're worried that they're going to be perceived as weak on security,” Mr. Freeman said.

T.S.A. officials declined to discuss their checkpoint screening procedures, but sent an e-mail statement: “T.S.A. is a counterterrorism agency whose mission is to ensure the safety of the traveling public. To that end, T.S.A. deploys the latest technologies and implements comprehensive procedures that protect passengers while facilitating travel.”

But the growing chorus of complaints from travel industry leaders suggests that frustrations with policies on shoes, laptops, liquids and pat-downs may have reached a limit.

Giovanni Bisignani, chief executive of the International Air Transport Association, said in a speech at an aviation security conference in Frankfurt last week that the airlines would like to see an overhaul of the checkpoint screening process — with a greater focus on finding bad people, rather than bad objects.

“Discouraging travelers with queues into the parking lot is not a solution,” Mr. Bisignani said in his speech. “And it is not acceptable to treat passengers as terrorists until they prove themselves innocent.”

Steve Lott, a spokesman for the International Air Transport Association, said the body scanners had resulted in longer lines because passengers had to take everything out of their pockets, not just coins and cellphones.

“Within the past year or so we've seen longer lines, and we're concerned about the return of the hassle factor,” Mr. Lott said.

Although the T.S.A. used to track security line wait times and post that data on its Web site so travelers knew what to expect, the agency stopped publishing that information in 2008. It is now searching for a way to automate the process of collecting wait-time data, said Lauren Gaches, an agency spokeswoman, but does not know when it will resume sharing that information with the public.

Historical data posted on tsa.gov indicates that average peak wait times were about 12 minutes in 2006 and crept up to 15 minutes in early 2008. Since then, the T.S.A. has shifted to a system that tracks the percentage of passengers who wait 20 minutes or less to go through security, and says that 99 percent of travelers have waited less than 20 minutes in security lines in 2010.

But anecdotal feedback about security wait times varies widely depending on whom you ask.

Christopher Bidwell, a vice president at the Airports Council International North America, said the trade association had not heard complaints about long security lines from its airport members. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, which tracks its own security line wait times and posts that information on its Web site, has reported lines of less than 10 minutes when randomly checked during the last two weeks.

But passengers are finding wait times can stretch well past half an hour at some airports, especially during peak departure times.

Dieter Ast, a professor in the engineering department at Cornell, said he had waited more than 40 minutes to get through the security lines at Denver and Newark airports, but rarely has a long wait at his home airport in Ithaca, N.Y.

“It's totally unpredictable, but the larger the airport the longer you can potentially be stuck,” he said, adding that he is flying less because of frustrations with airport security and his unwillingness to submit to the body scanners.

“I'm not taking as many trips,” Professor Dieter said. “And my European friends are avoiding the U.S. because of the hassle.”

That lost business is the main fear motivating the U.S. Travel Association to speak out about frustrations with airport security, but lately others have also chimed in.

Speaking two weeks ago, Martin Broughton, the chairman of British Airways, bluntly criticized American aviation security policies, particularly for making demands on foreign carriers that are inconsistently enforced within the United States. And the president of the Allied Pilots Association, Dave Bates, sent a letter to members suggesting that they refuse to submit to the body imaging scanners based on privacy objections and the potential health risks of repeated exposure to radiation.

Last week, the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed the opening brief in its case against the Department of Homeland Security, challenging the legality of using body scanners as a primary screening tool for all passengers. The government is expected to file its response by December.

Although a consensus within the travel industry is emerging that airport screening needs to be reassessed, there is less agreement about what the main problems are — and how they should be fixed. Some industry officials argue that checked bag fees are creating bottlenecks at security lines, now that more travelers are bringing larger carry-ons through the checkpoints. And passengers, who are not always prepared for the screening process, get a share of the blame.

“We can't deny that travelers are part of the problem,” said Mr. Freeman, of the U.S. Travel Association. “Travelers have to take some responsibility for making the process better.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/business/09lines.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Kidnapping Testimony In Utah Trial

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Elizabeth Smart awoke when she felt a cold knife on her throat. Then she heard a man threatening to kill her and her family if she did not leave with him.

“He said he was taking me hostage, for ransom,” Ms. Smart told jurors on Monday, the first day of testimony in the trial of Brian D. Mitchell, who is accused of kidnapping her from her bed in 2002 and holding her for nine months.

Ms. Smart's mother, Lois Smart, testified earlier that she hired Mr. Mitchell, a homeless street preacher, to do handyman work.

Mr. Mitchell's lawyers said he was influenced by escalating mental illness and extreme religious beliefs that made him think he was doing God's bidding.

Elizabeth Smart, who was 14 when she was kidnapped and is now 23, described the kidnapping. She had left a kitchen window open because her mother had burned potatoes at dinner.

“I remember him saying that I have a knife to your neck, don't make a sound, get out of bed and come with me or I will kill you and your family,” she said.

Ms. Smart said she and Mr. Mitchell hiked three to five hours up a hill to a campsite, where Wanda Eileen Barzee, his now-estranged wife, told her to take off her pajamas and underwear and put on a robe or “she would have the defendant come in and rip them off,” she said.

Ms. Smart said Mr. Mitchell married them by pulling a sentence from the traditional Mormon marriage ceremony. “He said, ‘What I seal on this earth will be sealed to me in the hereafter, and I take you to be my wife,' ” she said.

She said he then forced her to the ground and raped her.

She could not flee because he chained her to a table.

Parker Douglas, a public defender, did not dispute the facts but took issue with the prosecution's allegation that Mr. Mitchell planned the kidnapping.

“His life here is marked by an intense idiosyncratic set of beliefs,” Mr. Douglas said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/us/09smart.html?ref=us

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Arrests Made In Child Sex Trade

Sixty-nine prostitutes ages 12 to 17 have been found in the last three days as part of a nationwide crackdown on the sexual exploitation of children, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Monday.

An F.B.I. spokesman, Jason Pack, said 99 pimp suspects were arrested in 40 cities across 30 states and the District of Columbia, while 785 other adults were arrested on a variety of state and local charges.

The largest group of child prostitutes, 24, was found in and around Seattle.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/us/09brf-ARRESTSMADEI_BRF.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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OPINION

Fighting Bullying With Babies

Imagine there was a cure for meanness. Well, maybe there is.

By DAVID BORNSTEIN

Lately, the issue of bullying has been in the news, sparked by the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a gay college student who was a victim of cyber-bullying, and by a widely circulated New York Times article that focused on “mean girl” bullying in kindergarten. The federal government has identified bullying as a national problem. In August, it organized the first-ever “Bullying Prevention Summit,” and it is now rolling out an anti-bullying campaign aimed at 5- to 8-year old children. This past month the Department of Education released a guidance letter to schools, colleges and universities to take bullying seriously, or face potential legal consequences.

The typical institutional response to bullying is to get tough. In the Tyler Clementi case, prosecutors are considering bringing hate-crime charges . But programs like the one I want to discuss today show the potential of augmenting our innate impulses to care for one another instead of just falling back on punishment as a deterrent. And what's the secret formula? A baby.

We know that humans are hardwired to be aggressive and selfish. But a growing body of research is demonstrating that there is also a biological basis for human compassion. Brain scans reveal that when we contemplate violence done to others we activate the same regions in our brains that fire up when mothers gaze at their children, suggesting that caring for strangers may be instinctual. When we help others, areas of the brain associated with pleasure also light up. Research by Felix Warneken and Michael Tomasello indicates that toddlers as young as 18 months behave altruistically. (If you want to feel good, watch one of their 15-second video clips here.)

More important, we are beginning to understand how to nurture this biological potential. It seems that it's not only possible to make people kinder, it's possible to do it systematically at scale – at least with school children. That's what one organization based in Toronto called Roots of Empathy has done.

Roots of Empathy was founded in 1996 by Mary Gordon, an educator who had built Canada's largest network of school-based parenting and family-literacy centers after having worked with neglectful and abusive parents. Gordon had found many of them to be lacking in empathy for their children. They hadn't developed the skill because they hadn't experienced or witnessed it sufficiently themselves. She envisioned Roots as a seriously proactive parent education program – one that would begin when the mothers- and fathers-to-be were in kindergarten.

Since then, Roots has worked with more than 12,600 classes across Canada, and in recent years, the program has expanded to the Isle of Man, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the United States, where it currently operates in Seattle. Researchers have found that the program increases kindness and acceptance of others and decreases negative aggression.

Here's how it works: Roots arranges monthly class visits by a mother and her baby (who must be between two and four months old at the beginning of the school year). Each month, for nine months, a trained instructor guides a classroom using a standard curriculum that involves three 40-minute visits – a pre-visit, a baby visit, and a post-visit. The program runs from kindergarten to seventh grade. During the baby visits, the children sit around the baby and mother (sometimes it's a father) on a green blanket (which represents new life and nature) and they try to understand the baby's feelings. The instructor helps by labeling them. “It's a launch pad for them to understand their own feelings and the feelings of others,” explains Gordon. “It carries over to the rest of class.”

I have visited several public schools in low-income neighborhoods in Toronto to observe Roots of Empathy's work. What I find most fascinating is how the baby actually changes the children's behavior. Teachers have confirmed my impressions: tough kids smile, disruptive kids focus, shy kids open up. In a seventh grade class, I found 12-year-olds unabashedly singing nursery rhymes.

The baby seems to act like a heart-softening magnet. No one fully understands why. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, an applied developmental psychologist who is a professor at the University of British Columbia, has evaluated Roots of Empathy in four studies. “Do kids become more empathic and understanding? Do they become less aggressive and kinder to each other? The answer is yes and yes,” she explained. “The question is why.”

C. Sue Carter, a neurobiologist based at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted pioneering research into the effects of oxytocin, a hormone that has been linked with caring and trusting behavior, suspects that biology is playing a role in the program's impact. “This may be an oxytocin story,” Carter told me. “I believe that being around the baby is somehow putting the children in a biologically different place. We don't know what that place is because we haven't measured it. However, if it works here as it does in other animals, we would guess that exposure to an infant would create a physiological state in which the children would be more social.”

To parent well, you must try to imagine what your baby is experiencing. So the kids do a lot of “perspective taking.” When the baby is too small to raise its own head, for example, the instructor asks the children to lay their heads on the blanket and look around from there. Perspective taking is the cognitive dimension of empathy – and like any skill it takes practice to master. (Cable news hosts, take note.)

Children learn strategies for comforting a crying baby. They learn that one must never shake a baby. They discover that everyone comes into the world with a different temperament, including themselves and their classmates. They see how hard it can be to be a parent, which helps them empathize with their own mothers and fathers. And they marvel at how capacity develops. Each month, the baby does something that it couldn't do during its last visit: roll over, crawl, sit up, maybe even begin walking. Witnessing the baby's triumphs – even something as small as picking up a rattle for the first time — the children will often cheer.

Read previous contributions to this series.

Ervin Staub, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, has studied altruism in children and found that the best way to create a caring climate is to engage children collectively in an activity that benefits another human being. In Roots, children are enlisted in each class to do something to care for the baby, whether it is to sing a song, speak in a gentle voice, or make a “wishing tree.”

The results can be dramatic. In a study of first- to third-grade classrooms, Schonert-Reichl focused on the subset of kids who exhibited “proactive aggression” – the deliberate and cold-blooded aggression of bullies who prey on vulnerable kids. Of those who participated in the Roots program, 88 percent decreased this form of behavior over the school year, while in the control group, only 9 percent did, and many actually increased it. Schonert-Reichl has reproduced these findings with fourth to seventh grade children in a randomized controlled trial. She also found that Roots produced significant drops in “relational aggression” – things like gossiping, excluding others, and backstabbing. Research also found a sharp increase in children's parenting knowledge.

“Empathy can't be taught, but it can be caught,” Gordon often says – and not just by children. “Programmatically my biggest surprise was that not only did empathy increase in children, but it increased in their teachers,” she added. “And that, to me, was glorious, because teachers hold such sway over children.”

When the program was implemented on a large scale across the province of Manitoba – it's now in 300 classrooms there — it achieved an “effect size” that Rob Santos, the scientific director of Healthy Child Manitoba, said translates to reducing the proportion of students who get into fights from 15 percent to 8 percent, close to a 50 percent reduction. “For a program that costs only hundreds of dollars per child, the cost-benefit of preventing later problems that cost thousands of dollars per child, is obvious,” said Santos.

Follow up studies have found that outcomes are maintained or enhanced three years after the program ends. “When you've got emotion and cognition happening at the same time, that's deep learning,” explains Gordon. “That's learning that will last.”

It's hard to envision what a kinder and gentler world, or school, would truly look like. But Gordon told me a story about a seventh grade student in a tough school in Toronto that offered a glimpse. He was an effeminate boy from an immigrant background who was always the butt of jokes. “Anytime he spoke, you'd hear snickers in the background,” she recalled. Towards the end of the year, the children in Roots are asked to write a poem or a song for the baby. Kids often work in groups and come up with raps. This boy decided to sing a song he'd written himself about mothers.

“He was overweight and nerdy looking. His social skills were not very good,” Gordon recalled. “And he sang his song. The risk he took. My breath was in my fist, hoping that no one would humiliate him. And no one did. Not one youngster smirked. When he finished, they clapped. And I'm sure they all knew that they were holding back. But, oh my God, I was blown away. I couldn't say anything.”

She added: “When they talk about protecting kids in schools, they talk about gun shields, cameras, lights, but never about the internal environment. But safe is not about the rules – it's about how the youngsters feel inside.”

Have you seen or do you have ideas about effective ways to diminish bullying in school and elsewhere? We'll discuss them in Saturday's follow up – and also look at a critical step that teachers can take to make their classrooms more peaceful.

David Bornstein is the author of “How to Change the World,” which has been published in 20 languages, and “The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank,” and is co-author of “Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know.” He is the founder of dowser.org, a media site that reports on social innovation.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/fighting-bullying-with-babies/?pagemode=print

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From the Chicago Sun Times

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City: 'Astonishing' drop in lawsuits against Chicago cops

Law Department: 'We're not settling cases like we used to'

November 9, 2010

BY FRANK MAIN

Chicago's year-old strategy of going to trial with lawsuits against police officers instead of settling cases is paying off, city officials say.

Last fall, police Supt. Jody Weis notified Chief U.S. Judge James F. Holderman of the change in legal strategy.

A year-old city strategy to aggressive fight police misconduct cases in court has resulted in "astonishing" results for the city, officials said.

"I have asked the Department of Law to litigate those cases which would have been settled [as] a matter of financial concern," Weis said in a letter. "If plaintiffs know their complaint will in fact be litigated, more focus and concern will be given to the factual validity of the complaints signed."

In the past, the city often settled "defensible" cases because the city's legal expenses could far exceed the cost of a settlement. One reason for launching the new strategy was a concern by officers that settlements can reflect poorly on them even if they did nothing wrong, said Karen Seimetz, the city's first assistant corporation counsel.

A year later, the results are "astonishing," according to a report the Law Department prepared for this year's City Council budget hearings. Lawsuits filed against cops -- and settlements of lawsuits -- have both fallen dramatically, the report said.

This year, the city anticipates that 50 percent fewer police misconduct cases will be filed than in 2009. The share of cases resolved through settlements has fallen from about 67 percent in 2009 to about 24 percent this year through the end of September, officials said.

Also, the city is projected to pay about $1.7 million to settle "small cases" against officers this year -- compared with $9 million in 2007 and $9 million in 2008, the Law Department report said. Small cases are defined as those that are settled for less than $100,000 each, according to the city.

Those savings will more than offset the legal costs of taking the cases to trial instead of settling defensible cases, Seimetz said.

Small cases have been farmed out to outside lawyers for a bulk fee of $35,000 a case, plus a $15,000 bonus in the event of a trial win. That comes out to a little more than $5 million per year over the next two years to the outside lawyers, plus any bonuses that are paid out to them, Seimetz said. Those legal costs are expected to go down in future years as fewer cases are filed, she said.

"Over time, the word has gotten out," she said. "We're not settling cases like we used to."

But Larry Jackowiak, an attorney who represents clients in lawsuits against the police, said he thinks the city will lose money because of the new strategy.

He said he was willing to settle one lawsuit for $10,000, but the city refused, the case went to trial and a jury awarded his client $7,500.

"They kept saying 'no settlement, no settlement," Jackowiak said. "Instead of paying $10,000, the city paid outside counsel $35,000, plus the $7,500 jury award, plus our attorney's fees of $153,000. It makes no financial sense whatsoever."

Jackowiak added that many of his clients who sue the police have criminal records.

"We know they have zero chance in front of the jury," Jackowiak said. "We can't do anything for them. The door has been slammed shut."

Mark Donahue, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he didn't want to comment on the strategy until he sees the numbers himself. But he said another reason lawsuits against the police are down could be that the FOP obtained legislation about six years ago requiring citizens to sign a sworn affidavit before making a formal complaint against an officer.

"That reduced complaints by 60 percent," Donahue said. "That could have an impact on lawsuits. Frivolous complaints lead to frivolous lawsuits."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2877740,CST-NWS-settle09.article

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Operation targets child prostitution

CRIME | 3 underage victims in Chicago area  

November 9, 2010

BY NATASHA KORECKI

The escorts were ordered up and asked to meet their clients in hotel rooms.

In Downer's Grove, a 17-year-old girl showed up.

In Lansing, a 16-year-old girl showed up.

In South Holland, it was another 16-year-old girl.

It was all part of a coordinated undercover operation in the Chicago area and nationwide, conducted by local and state police officers, working with the FBI.

The three-day operation in the Chicago area led to the arrests of six pimps and 39 adults charged with various sex crimes.

But the three underage girls -- all of whom were driven to the hotels by someone else -- were different, authorities said. The three were taken in as victims and are now in the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services.

Greg Wing, FBI supervisor of Crimes Against Children in Chicago, said finding the three underage girls locally -- and 69 children nationally in all -- was an imperative part of what authorities dubbed Operation Cross Country.

Similar arrests were made in 40 cities across the country with 884 people facing charges including 99 pimps.

"There's no work that's more important than protecting our children," Wing said. "We're definitely trying to focus on those victims."

Wing said in many cases children are forced into prostitution. Some even begin to develop "Stockholm Syndrome" and fall in love or protect their pimps.

When young girls are found in these operations, specialists who deal with victims also come on the scene to help with the young people, he said.

"We try to get them help. Try to get them out of their lifestyle and bring others to justice," Wing said.

Prostitutes are interviewed as the FBI tries to develop intelligence, largely targeting pimps and rooting out underage prostitution networks across geographical areas.

"We found they travel between states and different cities and the suburbs," Wing said of pimps.

The three-day enforcement in the Chicago area used nearly 100 police officers with about one dozen FBI agents and aimed to target rings that used children as prostitutes, FBI spokesman Ross Rice said

"It's just a phenomenon we've been seeing, where minor children are being forced into or are allowed to engage in prostitution activities," Rice said.

It was the same law enforcement effort last year that helped expand an ongoing investigation in Chicago into a prostitution network that involved using intimidation and violence to keep girls as young as 14 working as prostitutes, Wing said.

That case, charged in federal court earlier this year, accuses alleged pimp Datqunn Sawyer of running a child prostitution ring on the West Side out of his home and his mother's home since 2009.

The prostitutes arrested over the weekend were largely found through online and print ads for escort services.

While most ads offer disclaimers that they don't engage in illegal behavior, even ads for "high-end" escorts are overt. One lists prices of $400-$800 an hour for women who are shown partially nude. One solicitation for an escort service that runs a service out of Chicago features a topless "model," advertises her as young and says she can be hired for $400 an hour.

"She is young but she knows all arts of seduction and lovemaking at its best. In her company, the night never sees its dawn."

RELATED STORIES FBI, police target prostitution rings with undercover operation

http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2877730,CST-NWS-prostitutes09.article

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New security rules for air cargo after Yemen-Chicago bomb plot

November 9, 2010

BY EILEEN SULLIVAN

WASHINGTON -- New U.S. security rules are in place banning all cargo from Yemen and Somalia and prohibiting toner and ink cartridges weighing more than one pound from passenger flights, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday.

The new rules are a direct response to the thwarted terror plot that could have taken down two cargo planes over the U.S. last month. Terrorists in Yemen had hidden two powerful bombs inside printers and shipped them to addresses in Chicago.

As the packages made their way to the U.S., Saudi Arabia tipped off intelligence officials to the plot, providing the FedEx and UPS tracking numbers that allowed officials to pinpoint where the packages were en route.

"The threats of terrorism we face are serious and evolving, and these security measures reflect our commitment to using current intelligence to stay ahead of adversaries," Napolitano said in a statement.

The U.S. immediately banned cargo from Yemen after the bombs were intercepted. Other countries including England and Germany -- which the bombs traveled through -- followed suit.

Somalia was added to the U.S. ban, despite a lack of intelligence pointing to a similar plot to detonate bombs on cargo planes, said a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said the terrorist group in Somalia, al-Shabaab, has said it intends to attack the U.S., just as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has stated and tried to do.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2877618,CST-NWS-mailbombs09.article

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Statement by Secretary Napolitano on Increased Security Measures

"Following the thwarted terrorist plot last week to conceal and ship explosive devices on board aircraft bound for the U.S., the Administration took a number of immediate steps to increase security by tightening existing measures related to cargo bound for the United States.

Some of the steps that have been taken by the Department of Homeland Security included adapting inbound cargo targeting rules to reflect the latest intelligence and ordering a ground halt on all cargo coming from Yemen. In addition, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator John S. Pistole and a team of TSA inspectors visited Yemen to meet with government security officials and to assist in enhancing Yemen's security procedures, which are necessary to eventually lift the ground halt on cargo.

Late last week, TSA directed industry carriers to begin implementing additional precautionary security measures for international flights inbound to the United States. These measures take effect today. Specifically, the ban on air cargo from Yemen will continue and has been extended to all air cargo from Somalia as well. In addition, no high risk cargo will be allowed on passenger aircraft. Toner and ink cartridges over 16 ounces will be prohibited on passenger aircraft in both carry-on bags and checked bags on domestic and international flights in-bound to the United States. This ban will also apply to certain inbound international air cargo shipments as well. Further, all cargo identified as high risk will go through additional and enhanced screening. These measures also impact inbound international mail packages, which must be screened individually and certified to have come from an established postal shipper.

The Administration is also working closely with industry and our international partners to expedite the receipt of cargo manifests for international flights to the United States prior to departure in order to identify and screen items based on risk and current intelligence. We are also working with our international and private sector partners on the expansion of layered detections system including technology and other measures.

As always, the safety and security of the American public is our highest priority. The threats of terrorism we face are serious and evolving, and these security measures reflect our commitment to using current intelligence to stay ahead of adversaries—working closely with our international, federal, state, local and private sector partners every step of the way. We encourage our partners, as well as our citizens, to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to local law enforcement authorities."

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1289237893803.shtm

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From the Department of Justice

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Report Illustrates Forward Momentum

The Office of Justice Programs' (OJP) fiscal year 2009 Annual Report is now available. The report, titled Forward Momentum , is presented in chapters that demonstrate OJP's commitment to outreach, collaboration, innovative approaches, evidence-based programs and practices, and careful stewardship of the funds entrusted to OJP by Congress and the American people.

Each chapter includes highlights of accomplishments that were funded by fiscal year 2009 appropriations and by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Each chapter also provides real world examples that demonstrate how OJP programs have made a positive difference in the lives of Americans.

The strong commitment of this Administration, this Department of Justice, and OJP to the safety of America's communities is evident throughout this report. Read the report online, or request copies by calling 202-307-0703.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/newsroom/ojpannualreport.htm

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Oregon Man Sentenced for Threatening Lima, Ohio, Civil Rights Leader by Mailing Noose

WASHINGTON - Daniel Lee Jones, a Portland, Ore., white supremacist, was sentenced today to 18 months in prison and three years supervised release for threatening the president of the Lima, Ohio, chapter of the NAACP by mailing him a noose. Jones entered a guilty plea on May 17, 2010, to using the U.S. Postal Service to send a threatening communication.

In the plea agreement, Jones admitted to mailing F.M. Jason Upthegrove a hangman's noose, which arrived at Mr. Upthegrove's home on or about Feb. 14, 2008. Jones stated in the plea agreement that he mailed the hangman's noose in order to convey a threat to Mr. Upthegrove because he was an African-American who publicly advocated for better police services for African-Americans in Lima, Ohio. The indictment indicated that Mr. Upthegrove also spoke out in the media against Jones's white supremacist group's mailing of hate flyers related to the shooting of an African American woman by a member of the Lima Police Department.

"A noose, an unmistakable symbol of hatred in this nation, was used by this defendant as a threat of violence aimed at silencing a civil rights advocate," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division. "The Department of Justice will vigorously prosecute those who use threats of violence to attempt to silence proponents of racial equality."

"We will not tolerate those who use threats of violence, such as by mailing a noose, to intimidate individuals who are advocating for racial equality," said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steven M. Dettelbach.

The case was investigated by Special Agent Brian Russ of the FBI, and the prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Bauer from the U.S. Attorney's Office, and Special Legal Counsel Barry Kowalski and Trial Attorney Shan Patel from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/November/10-crt-1265.html

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From ICE

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Honduran national sentenced to more than 8 years in federal prison for conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens

HOUSTON - A Honduran national was sentenced on Friday to 100 months in federal prison for attempting to kidnap illegal aliens. This investigation was conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Kenneth Barahona, 19, Honduran national, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Sim Lake Nov. 5 to eight years and four months in prison for conspiracy to harbor aliens and possessing a firearm. Barahona is subject to deportation after he completes his prison sentence.

The investigation by ICE agents in Houston began on March 29 after reports of gunshots were called in by residents of the 220 block of Vashti Drive. Multiple reports were received of individuals running through yards, jumping fences and hiding in the vicinity. Harris County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) deputies arrived at the scene and discovered Barahona who had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

Barahona admitted to the attempted kidnapping of more than 20 illegal aliens by wearing an ICE T-shirt. During the attempt, Barahona and a guard at the house exchanged gunfire with both individuals suffering multiple gunshot wounds.

As part of the investigation, ICE HSI agents discovered and seized at the residence one SKS rifle, and three handguns: a .357, a 9mm, and an Uzi 9mm. Three criminal and 22 administrative arrests were made at multiple locations as a part of the investigation.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Elmilady, Southern District of Texas, prosecuted the case.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1011/101105houston.htm

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29 charged with sex trafficking juveniles

Imagine being stripped of everything you know, transported between states and forced to have sex with strangers. No, this isn't a nightmare; these are details from a recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigation. Four girls - some younger than 14 years old - were forced into a life of prostitution by a Somali-run Human Trafficking Organization.

Human trafficking is dark, dirty and secretive. The victims are often voiceless, scared and hidden in plain sight. ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigate many federal crimes, but human trafficking - especially that of children - is one of the most egregious. Lives are compromised. Productive futures are destroyed.

Today, ICE, with counterparts from the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Secret Service, the St. Paul Police Department, the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced the arrest of more than 20 individuals associated with the trafficking ring. These individuals transported girls across state lines and forced them to have sex in exchange for small amounts of marijuana and liquor. Allegedly, they also filmed the sexual acts and transmitted them via cell phones for others to view.

Charges in this case stem from an initial investigation conducted by ICE's Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the St. Paul Police Department. The two agencies had reason to believe that a Somali gang was forcing young girls into prostitution. Working off a tip, the investigation led the agencies to Tennessee where a possible victim - a runaway from Minnesota - was located. Agents confirmed that the victim was one of four underage girls being transported across state lines for prostitution.

ICE and other law enforcement agencies need your assistance to end human trafficking. If you notice suspicious activity, call ICE's Tip Line, 1-866-DHS-2-ICE.

Learn more about ICE's role in human trafficking.

Learn more about the DHS' Blue Campaign against human trafficking.

View the news release.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1011/101108washingtondc.htm

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ICE helps FBI rescue 4 juveniles from prostitution in Tampa Bay during Operation Cross Country

TAMPA, Fla. - As members of the Clearwater Area Human Trafficking Task Force, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents and officers in Tampa assisted the FBI locally to rescue four juveniles and arrest 35 adults over the past 72 hours during Operation Cross Country V, a three-day national enforcement action as part of the FBI's Innocence Lost National Initiative.

The operation included enforcement actions in 40 cities throughout the nation and led to the recovery of 69 children who were being victimized through prostitution. Additionally, nearly 884 others, including 99 pimps, were arrested on state and local charges.

The four local children who were rescued resided in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Other participating agencies in the operation included the Tampa Police Department, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Clearwater Police Department, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

To date, the FBI's 39 Innocence Lost Task Forces and Working Groups have recovered over 1,200 children from the streets. The investigations and subsequent 625 convictions have resulted in lengthy sentences, including multiple 25-years-to-life sentences and the seizure of more than $3.1 million in assets.

In the spring of 2003, the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, in partnership with the Department of Justice's CEOS and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), formed the Innocence Lost National Initiative to address the growing problem of children forced into prostitution. This program brings state and federal law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and social service providers all from around the country to NCMEC, where the groups are trained together. In addition, CEOS has reinforced the training by assigning prosecutors to help bring cases in those cities plagued by child prostitution.

ICE's participation in the Clearwater Area Human Trafficking Task Force is part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to identify, investigate and arrest those who prey on children, including human traffickers, international sex tourists, Internet pornographers, and foreign-national predators whose crimes make them deportable.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423 . This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1011/101108tampa.htm

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29 charged with sex trafficking juveniles

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Local, state and federal law enforcement officers in Nashville, Tenn., Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., on Monday began arresting 29 individuals who were listed in a federal indictment which was unsealed listing various charges, including sex trafficking juveniles and conspiring to sex traffic juveniles, obstruction of justice, perjury, auto theft and credit card fraud. The 24-count indictment was announced at a press conference in Nashville by Jerry E. Martin, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, and John Morton, Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Also appearing at the news conference were the following law enforcement leaders in this investigation: Sarah Beth Pulliam, Special Agent in Charge (SAC), U.S. Secret Service, Nashville Field Office; Amy Hess, SAC, FBI Memphis Field Office; Mark Gwyn, Director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI); Ken Reed, Assistant Chief, St. Paul Police Department; and Chief Steve Anderson of the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department.

The indictment results from an investigation that began in 2008 and alleges that the defendants are involved in or are associates of the following gangs which are connected to one another: the Somali Outlaws, the Somali Mafia, and the Lady Outlaws.

"Human traffickers abuse innocent people, undermine our public safety, and often use their illicit proceeds to fund sophisticated criminal organizations," said ICE Director Morton. "ICE is committed to bringing these criminals to justice and rescuing their victims from a life in the shadows. We will continue to fight the battle to end human trafficking both here in the United States and around the globe."

"Trafficking children for sex is intolerable and the Department of Justice will aggressively enforce trafficking and other laws to eliminate these types of deplorable acts," said U.S. Attorney Martin. "As shown here today, law enforcement agencies at every level will come together to bring the full force of justice to bear on individuals who choose to profit by victimizing innocent children."

The indictment alleges that between 2000 and 2010, members and associates of the gangs transported underage Somali and African-American females from the Minneapolis area to Nashville for the purpose of having the females engage in sex acts for money and other items of value. The indictment alleges the defendants used some girls for sex trafficking who were 13 years old and younger. The indictment also alleges that an 18-year-old woman was sexually assaulted. Sex trafficking offenses carry a penalty of not less than 15 years to life in prison.

The indictment further charges that members and associates of the gangs conspired to obstruct the investigation and committed perjury during the course of testimony before the federal grand jury investigating the case. The indictment also alleges that members and associates of these gangs stole a motor vehicle and used it to engage in credit card fraud, which amounted to a $231,000 loss to one credit card company in about a one-year period.

"Today's arrests demonstrate the importance of cooperation between state, local and federal law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of organized crime," said FBI Special Agent in Charge Hess. "Criminal organizations are not limited by physical boundaries or state lines. The crimes of human trafficking, especially for the sex trade, and identity theft reach across our nation and directly, sometimes permanently, impact the lives of victims and their families. The FBI will continue to focus on the disruption and dismantlement of these organizations and bring them to justice."

TBI Director Gwyn said, "This case is proof of how critical criminal intelligence support and analytical support is to an investigation. The information sharing and dedication by law enforcement agencies in this case is a testament to the lengths agencies will go to protect children." Those charged in the indictment are identified as:

• Abdifitah Jama Adan, aka "Shorty," aka "Faleebo," aka "Kuzzo," 28;
• Abdullahi Sade Afyare, aka "Forehead,"19;
• Ahmad Abnulnasir Ahmad, aka "Fabulous,"23;
• Yahya Jamal Ahmed, 23;
• Abdikarim Osman Ali, aka "Homer," aka "Big Abdi," 22;
• Musse Ahmed Ali, aka "Fat Boy," 23;
• Hassan Ahmed Dahir, aka "Mohamed Ali Hussein," 21;
• Fadumo Mohamed Farah, aka "Naana Naana," aka "Gangster Boo," aka "Barnie," 25;
• Idris Ibrahim Fahra, aka "Chi Town," 22;
• Yasin Ahmed Farah, 19;
• Abdullahi Hashi, aka "Kamal," 24;
• Fatah Haji Hashi, aka "Jerry," aka "Jr," 23;
• Abdirahman Abdirazak Hersi, aka "Biggie," 20;
• Muhiyadin Hassan Hussein, aka "CD," 22;
• Dahir Nor Ibrahim, aka "Dahir Lucky," 38;
• Abdifatah Bashir Jama, aka "Cash Money," aka "Ohio," 23;
• Andrew Kayachith, aka "AK," 20;
• Abdigadir Ahmed Khalif, aka "Awali," 24;
• Bashir Yasin Mohamud, aka "Br," 26;
• Mustafa Ahmed Mohamed, 22;
• Fuad Faisal Nur, aka "Hanjule," 24;
• Abdifatah Sharif Omar, aka "British," aka "Pinky," 25;
• Liban Sharif Omar, aka "Sunderra," 21;
• Mohamed Sharif Omar, aka "Moe D," aka "Mojo," 26;
• Hamdi Ali Osman, aka "Big Hamdi," aka "Boss Lady," 22;
• Haji Osman Salad, aka "Hollywood," 20;
• Bibi Ahmed Said, 19;
• Ahmed Aweys Sheik, aka "Rear Hammer," aka "Abdul," 24; and
• Yassin Abdirahman Yusuf, aka "Junior," aka "Black Cat Junior," 21.

This case was investigated by the ICE Office of Homeland Security Investigations, the St. Paul Police Department, the FBI, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Secret Service, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, and the Minnesota Financial Crimes Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Van Vincent, of the Middle District of Tennessee, is prosecuting this case.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1011/101108nashville.htm

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From the FBI

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Sixty-Nine Children Rescued During Operation Cross Country V

November 8, 2010

Washington, D.C.

Over the past 72 hours, the FBI, its local and state law enforcement partners, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) concluded Operation Cross Country V, a three-day national enforcement action as part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative. The operation included enforcement actions in 40 cities across 34 FBI divisions around the country and led to the recovery of 69 children who were being victimized through prostitution. Additionally, nearly 885 others, including 99 pimps, were arrested on state and local charges.

“Child prostitution continues to be a significant problem in our country, as evidenced by the number of children rescued through the continued efforts of our crimes against children task forces,” said Shawn Henry, executive assistant director of the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. “There is no work more important than protecting America's children and freeing them from the cycle of victimization. Through our strategic partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies, we are able to make a difference.”

Task Force operations usually begin as local actions, targeting such places as truck stops, casinos, street “tracks,” and Internet websites, based on intelligence gathered by officers working in their respective jurisdictions. Initial arrests are often violations of local and state laws relating to prostitution or solicitation. Information gleaned from those arrested often uncovers organized efforts to prostitute women and children across many states. FBI agents further develop this information in partnership with U.S. Attorney's Offices and the U.S. Department of Justice's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and file federal charges where appropriate.

To date, the 39 Innocence Lost Task Forces and Working Groups have recovered over 1,200 children from the streets. The investigations and subsequent 625 convictions have resulted in lengthy sentences, including multiple 25-years-to-life sentences and the seizure of more than $3.1 million in assets.

In the spring of 2003, the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, in partnership with the Department of Justice's CEOS and NCMEC, formed the Innocence Lost National Initiative to address the growing problem of children forced into prostitution.

“The leadership of the FBI and the Justice Department in attacking domestic child trafficking and prostitution is historic,” said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “Once again, Operation Cross Country has awakened the nation to the fact that today, American children are being marketed and sold for sex in American cities. These kids are victims. This is 21st century slavery. We are proud to be a part of this extraordinary partnership to rescue children, save lives, and bring the pimps and operators to justice.”

This program brings state and federal law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and social service providers all from around the country to NCMEC, where the groups are trained together. In addition, CEOS has reinforced the training by assigning prosecutors to help bring cases in those cities plagued by child prostitution.

The FBI thanks the over 2,100 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers representing 186 separate agencies who participated in Operation Cross Country and ongoing enforcement efforts.

The charges announced today are merely accusations, and all defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law.

For more information on Operation Cross Country and the Innocence Lost National Initiative, visit www.fbi.gov, www.justice.gov, or www.ncmec.org.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/occv_110810

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From the DEA

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Forty-Five Defendants Arrested as part of Massive Assault
against La Familia Michoacana Operatives

NOV 08 -- ATLANTA – Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson, DEA Atlanta Field Division Special Agent in Charge Rodney G. Benson, and Atlanta High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Director Jack Killorin announce the arrests of 45 defendants. Most of these defendants were indicted by a Clayton County Grand Jury a short time ago. During the duration of this investigation, the approximate amounts of items were seized as follows: 46 pounds of methamphetamine plus a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory (total amount to be determined), 43 kilograms of cocaine, 4,120 pounds of marijuana, 20 firearms, and $2,349,000 of U.S. Currency. The defendants were arrested as part of Operation Choke Hold which targeted the distribution network of a major Mexican drug trafficking organization known as La Familia.

In May 2009, the Atlanta HIDTA Task Force initiated an investigation targeting elements of the La Familia Cartel based in Atlanta, Georgia. This organization was responsible for the importation of bulk quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana into the Metro Atlanta area. The organization distributed narcotics in the Metro Atlanta area, as well as shipped significant quantities to Florida, Alabama, Indiana, Illinois, and North Carolina.

In December 2009, the Clayton County District Attorney's Office joined the investigation team and became a driving force behind the success of this case. Forty six individuals have been charged in Clayton and other counties with offenses including violations of the Georgia Controlled Substance Act, Trafficking, Conspiracy, Money Laundering, and weapons violations.

The La Familia cartel is a violent drug trafficking cartel based in the state of Michoacan, in southwestern Mexico. La Familia controls drug manufacturing and distribution in and around Michoacan, including the importation of vast quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine from Mexico into the United States. La Familia is a heavily armed cartel that has utilized violence to support its narcotics trafficking business including murders, kidnappings and assaults.

Tracy Lawson, Clayton County District Attorney commented about the operation, “Drugs are the root cause of most criminal acts including murder, armed robbery, and burglary. The united effort of local, state and federal authorities in Operation Choke Hold has resulted in the decimation of a significant drug trafficking organization operating in the Atlanta metropolitan area, the arrest of its operators and the seizure of their drugs and ill gotten gains all of which will have a positive impact on our citizens.”

Rodney G. Benson, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the DEA Atlanta Field Division (AFD) praised the teamwork of the investigators and prosecutors in the case. He stated “Today, through Operation Choke Hold, we have worked with our federal, state and local counterparts to target and dismantle a major Mexican criminal enterprise that has distributed hundreds of pounds of illegal drugs into our local communities and who have collected millions of dollars of drug proceeds.”

Jack Killorin, director of the Atlanta High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) stated, “It has been widely reported that the Atlanta Metropolitan area has become a major distribution center for drug cartels based in Mexico. It should also be reported that law enforcement working collaboratively is successful in disrupting their operations. They are not so low profile that we cannot see them and bring them to account.”

This investigation was conducted through the cooperative efforts of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the DeKalb County Police Department, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, the Catoosa County Sheriff's Office, the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office, the Troup County Sheriff's Office, the Henry County Police Department, the Georgia State Patrol, the Spaulding County Sheriff's Office, the Gwinnett Police Department and the Jonesboro Police Department.

DEA Atlanta's SAC Benson encourages parents, along with their children, to educate themselves about the dangers of legal and illegal drugs by visiting DEA's interactive websites at www.justhinktwice.com, www.GetSmartAboutDrugs.com and www.dea.gov.

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/2010/atlanta110810a.html

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Manager of Local Cell for Mexico-Based Drug Trafficking Organization
Pleads Guilty in the middle of Trial

Morfin was found and arrested at Cartel Stash House where $1.3 Million
in Drug Proceeds was hidden in Attic

NOV 08 -- ATLANTA, GA - OSCAR MORFIN VARGAS, 29, a citizen of Mexico residing illegally in the metro Atlanta area, today pleaded guilty to federal drug and money laundering conspiracy charges for his role in distributing more than a thousand kilograms of marijuana in the United States and then returning millions of dollars in drug proceeds to Mexico. MORFIN's trial on the federal charges began yesterday. 

Rodney G. Benson, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the DEA Atlanta Field Division said, “This investigation and prosecution is yet another example of the continued pressure put on Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations by the DEA, the United States Attorney's Office and our outstanding federal, state and local law enforcement counterparts in the greater Atlanta area. This defendant's change of heart in the midst of trial speaks volumes to the fine investigative work conducted in this matter.”

“After this defendant got a close-up view of the government's evidence against him during the first day of trial, he decided to plead guilty and admit trafficking marijuana and shipping drug money back to Mexico,” said United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates. “The hard work of the members of the David Wilhelm OCDETF Strike Force has resulted in yet another blow to the Mexican drug traffickers who use Atlanta as a hub for their criminal activity.”

“The Georgia State Patrol works closely with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in the ongoing task of drug interdiction,” said Colonel Bill Hitchens, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety. “Each agency provides critical resources to assist in the successful prosecution of those involved.”

Fayette County Sheriff's Office Captain Jody Thomas said of the case, “We are proud of our relationship with DEA, and this case is an example of what good cooperative effort between law enforcement agencies can accomplish.” 

According to United States Attorney Yates, the charges and evidence at trial: For approximately four months starting in July 2009, DEA agents, assisted by local authorities, including Georgia State Patrol, the Fayette County Sheriff's Office, and the United States Marshal's Service, investigated MORFIN and his involvement in managing a local cell of a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization. In three separate incidents involving the cell, agents seized approximately 911 pounds of marijuana and $1.8 million in proceeds.  Secretly intercepted  telephone conversations, seized drug ledgers, and agents' surveillance confirmed MORFIN's involvement in moving the seized money and drugs.

On October 3, 2009, DEA agents saw a pickup truck leaving a residence in Ellenwood, Georgia, belonging to MORFIN. Georgia State Patrol Troopers conducted a traffic stop on Highway I-20 of the pickup truck, which contained 4-wheel ATV's, one of which was found with more than $435,000 hidden in its tires. Intercepted telephone communications, some directly involving MORFIN, showed his involvement in the incident.

On October 19, 2009, a Texas-based commercial truck driver drove a rig loaded with approximately 911 pounds of marijuana, hidden in a load of papayas, to a secluded multi-acre residence located in Griffin, Georgia that was being used by the local cell as a drug off-loading site. DEA Strike Force, Marshal's Service, and Fayette County authorities, seized the marijuana the following day. The tractor-trailer driver, GILBERTO AVALOS RIVERA, was arrested and has been tried and convicted in federal court for transporting the marijuana.  Intercepted telephone communications, some directly involving MORFIN, again showed his involvement in this drug incident. 

The final incident occurred at a residential property in Rex, Georgia, where MORFIN was found and arrested on the night of October 19, 2009. Intercepted telephone calls, including those involving MORFIN, revealed that he was attempting to hide money in response to the seizure of marijuana that had just occurred at the Griffin property.  When agents arrived at the residence, MORFIN provided his consent for agents to search the area.  Forty-four bundles of tape-wrapped money exceeding more than $1.3 million was found in the attic. The packaging was the same as that of one of the bundles seized on October 3, 2009, from the 4-wheel ATV that had left MORFIN's residence. In addition, a Taurus handgun was found in the master bedroom where MORFIN had been sleeping. Drug ledgers seized from the Rex, Griffin, and Ellenwood properties confirmed the scope of the drug activity and MORFIN's involvement in managing the local operation.   

Although his trial began earlier this week, MORFIN pleaded guilty today at the beginning of the day's proceedings to conspiring to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana; and conspiring to launder drug proceeds. MORFIN has also accepted responsibility for the gun found at the Rex, Georgia, residence. In the plea agreement, NORFIN agreed to a sentence of 150 months, or 12 and a-half years, in prison, pending approval by the Court.

 The investigation of the case was led by DEA agents from the David Wilhelm OCDETF Strike Force in Atlanta. Other federal and local agencies assisted, including the United States Marshal's Service and the Fayette County Sheriff's Department.

The prosecution was headed by Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey W. Davis, assisted by Assistant United States Attorney G. Scott Hulsey. 

DEA Atlanta's SAC Benson encourages parents, along with their children, to educate themselves about the dangers of legal and illegal drugs by visiting DEA's interactive websites at www.justhinktwice.com, www.GetSmartAboutDrugs.com and www.dea.gov.

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/2010/atlanta110810.html

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