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From the New York Times

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Report Finds Wide Abuses by Police in New Orleans

by CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

NEW ORLEANS — Justice Department officials on Thursday released the findings of a 10-month investigation into this city's Police Department, revealing a force that is profoundly and alarmingly troubled and setting in motion a process for its wholesale reform.

The report describes in chilling detail a department that is severely dysfunctional on every level: one that regularly uses excessive force on civilians, frequently fails to investigate serious crimes and has a deeply inadequate, in many cases nonexistent, system of accountability.

Using the report as a guideline, federal and local officials will now enter into negotiations leading to a consent decree, a blueprint for systemic reform that will be enforced by a federal judge.

“There is nobody in this room that is surprised by the general tenor and the tone of what this report has to say,” said Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans, at a news conference attended by city and federal officials.

But, added Mr. Landrieu, who publicly invited federal intervention in the Police Department just days after his inauguration in May, “I look forward to a very spirited partnership and one that actually transforms this Police Department into one of the best in the country.”

The city's police chief, Ronal Serpas, said he fully embraced the report and would be going over its findings with senior leadership later in the day.

While the report describes an appalling array of abuses and bad practices, it does not address in detail any of the nine or more federal criminal investigations into the department. These inquiries have already led to the convictions of three police officers, one for fatally shooting an unarmed civilian and another for burning the body.

Justice Department officials chose to exclude the information gleaned in the criminal inquiries to keep a wall between those investigations and the larger civil investigation into the practices of the department. But there were more than enough problems left to uncover.

While other departments generally have problems in specific areas, like the use of excessive force, “New Orleans has every issue that has existed in our practice to date, and a few that we hadn't encountered,” said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's civil rights division.

The report reveals that the department has not found a policy violation in any officer-involved shooting for the last six years, though federal officials who reviewed the records found that violations had clearly occurred. The department's canine unit was so badly mismanaged — the dogs were so aggressive they frequently attacked their handlers — that federal officials encouraged the department to suspend it last year even though the investigation was still under way.

The report details a record of discriminatory policing, with a ratio of arrests of blacks to whites standing at nearly 16 to 1. Calls for police assistance by non-English speakers often went unanswered.

The report also found that the police “systemically misclassified possible sexual assaults, resulting in a sweeping failure to properly investigate many potential cases of rape, attempted rape and other sex crimes.”

The problems described in the report go beyond policy failings, depicting a culture of dysfunction that reaches all facets of the department. The recruitment program is described as anemic, training as “severely deficient in nearly every respect,” and supervision as poor or in some cases nonexistent.

The department has attracted this level of scrutiny before. As bad as it appears now, the police force was far more troubled in the mid-1990s. Two officers from that era are now on death row, and the number of murders in the city at the time soared above 400.

Federal agents conducted a similar investigation of the department, but there was less cooperation by local officials and, crucially, there was no consent decree.

While the department improved for a time, the structural problems remained and festered, as Thursday's report makes clear.

This time, there will be federal court oversight, and there is already widespread consensus that systemic police reform is needed. Confidence in the department is so low that prosecutors have trouble finding juries, as so many prospective jurors declare that they would not put any trust in the testimony of a New Orleans police officer.

The robust citizen engagement that has been a significant factor in the city's recovery from Hurricane Katrina has also changed the dynamic, officials said. While the New Orleans police force may be troubled to a rare degree, federal officials also described the city's appetite for systemic reform as unprecedented.

Federal officials said the team of agents assigned to investigate the department worked with police leadership as well as rank-and-file officers. Investigators also reached out to community leaders to a degree that they had not previously done.

Still, officials acknowledge that changing the department's entrenched culture will be hard and will take years. Though Mr. Serpas, who was an officer during the reform efforts in the 1990s, has already begun addressing many of the concerns, news reports of police abuses during the Mardi Gras season have come out in the past few weeks, and the number of homicides is still stubbornly high.

“I'm not naïve about the hard work that lies ahead,” Mr. Perez said, adding that he was still optimistic. “I'm certain that we're in a qualitatively different position than we were 10 years ago.”

Community advocates viewed the day's announcement with a mix of hope and skepticism. Some groups had been trying to draw attention to police abuse in the city for years before their complaints were noticed by law enforcement.

“Nobody believed anything we said,” said Norris Henderson, a founder of a group for former prisoners called Voice of the Ex-Offender. He said he was encouraged that community groups were so involved in the federal inquiry, but was concerned about the level of involvement going forward.

“Will we be a part of the conversation?” he asked. “Just going to the quote-unquote criminal justice folks, well, y'all the folks responsible for this damn problem.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/us/18orleans.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Immigrant Detentions Draw International Fire

Immigration enforcement in the United States is plagued by unjust treatment of detainees, including inadequate access to lawyers and insufficient medical care, and by the excessive use of prison-style detention, the human rights arm of the Organization of American States said Thursday.

The group, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, issued those findings in a report that also took aim at a federal program that allows county and state law enforcement officials to enforce federal immigration laws. The report said the government had failed to ensure that local police were not singling out people by race or detaining illegal immigrants on the pretext of investigating crimes.

The commission recommended that the federal government cancel the program, known as 287(g).

While many of the findings reiterated criticisms that have been made before by immigrant advocates and others, the report appeared to be the first comprehensive review of American immigration enforcement in recent years by an international body of the organization's stature.

The commission, based in Washington, has no enforcement powers, but it has considerable moral authority and a record of cooperation by member countries, including the United States.

The 155-page report was based on hearings and research that began in 2008, including visits in July 2009 by a team of investigators to six American detention centers in Arizona and Texas.

Since much of the research was completed, however, the Obama administration has begun a major overhaul of the detention system. A month after the commission's visits, immigration officials announced a sweeping plan to establish more centralized authority over the system and to renovate centers designed for penal detention to make them more appropriate for detainees facing deportation, particularly those accused of administrative violations.

The administration said it would also close centers that were rarely used or failed to meet its standards, and would consolidate the nation's patchwork of detention centers to meet increasing demand in specific areas, especially near big cities. It also said it would explore alternatives to detention.

Felipe González, president of the commission, acknowledged those plans but said the commission would withhold judgment on the efficacy of the reforms. “According to the information that we have so far, it's not clear that it's been implemented or will satisfy the international standards” of human rights, he said in an interview.

The commission will continue monitoring immigration enforcement to ensure that its grievances were addressed, Mr. González added.

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees enforcement, said Thursday that the department would review the report, and made no further comment.

Earlier, however, the Obama administration was given a draft. In their response, according to the report, administration officials pointed out that they had conducted their own comprehensive review of immigration enforcement and made “important changes.”

Still, the commission said it was “deeply troubled by the continual and widespread use of detention in immigration cases,” the report said.

“The Inter-American Commission is convinced that in many if not the majority of cases, detention is a disproportionate measure and the alternatives to detention programs would be a more balanced means of serving the State's legitimate interest in ensuring compliance with immigration laws,” the report said.

Mr. González also expressed skepticism that the administration would provide less penal settings for immigrants held on administrative, rather than criminal, charges. “It's not clear to us whether the new system will really mean that the facility will provide migrants in detention with a system that is fully respectful of human rights,” he said.

Mr. González said his commission was inspired to investigate the system after receiving numerous requests from human rights advocates and civil society organizations. The group, he added, is now planning to investigate other immigration detention systems in the hemisphere.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/us/18detain-1.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From Google News

CDC Urges New HIV Testing for Donors

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending hospitals test living donors for the virus that causes AIDS no more than seven days before their organs are removed and transplanted, following the first documented U.S. case of HIV transmission from a live organ donor in more than two decades.

According to an investigation by the CDC and New York city and state health officials, a kidney transplant recipient contracted the virus from a donor in an unnamed New York City hospital in 2009. The male donor acknowledged that he had engaged in unprotected sex with another man after he was screened for HIV, but before he donated the organ. The New York hospital tested the donor 79 days before transplant, when he showed no evidence of infection, but did not re-test him closer to the surgery that removed the organ.

The centers' 1994 guidelines for organ-donor screening, which are being revised, did not address the timing of screening tests.

The CDC is also recommending the use of a test that detects the virus within eight to 10 days of infection.

Of the three major transplant centers serving the city, Mount Sinai Medical Center said the event did not occur there; a spokesman for another, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said, "We don't have any information about this." New York University Langone Medical Center said that it would be "inappropriate" to comment.

Thanks to screening of organ donors for HIV, the chance of contracting the virus from a transplant is remote. The CDC estimates the risk of HIV transmission from deceased donors is about one in 25,000 donors, or about one every three years. "This may be happening more frequently than we recognize and we are likely missing cases," said Matthew J. Kuehnert, director of the CDC's Office of Blood, Organ, and other Tissue Safety.

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, a public-private partnership that sets nationalpolicies for organ allocation and screening, and the United Network for Organ Sharing, which operates the system, are formulating a policy for living-donor screening that would keep patients safe without compromising organ availability, said Connie L. Davis, who chairs the panel working on the policy. "People don't realize how complicated the scheduling and logistics can be for donors who are stepping forward out of the true goodness of their heart." Dr. Davis said.

Sander Florman, director of the transplant program at Mount Sinai, said the hospital will test its donors as close to transplant as possible in accordance with the new recommendations, and educate donors "to be very careful about any risky behaviors and report them to us confidentially" before donating an organ.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704360404576206922883043568.html

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Cops, firefighters rehired in Camden

Camden officials announced Thursday that some of the police officers and firefighters who were axed in January because of a budget crisis will be back in uniform effective April 1 -- without federal help and without increasing taxes.

The South Jersey Port Corp., working with Gov. Chris Christie's administration, made available $2.5 million in PILOT (or payments in lieu of taxes) money to fund the rehire 50 police officers and 15 firefighters through the end of fiscal year 2011, which ends June 30.

That means officers and fire personnel would only have salaries and benefits for the three months leading into the summer months -- notorious for higher crime rates. Camden Mayor Dana Redd said the work would have to be done with the city's next budget, not the one for fiscal year 2011, which has yet to be approved.

"It's our intention to retain them through FY12, but this is a temporary solution while we explore a long-term solution, and that may be the regionalized public safety and shared services plan," Redd said.

Additional officers rehired with the PILOT funds increase the number of officers on the street by 20 percent. Already much of Chief J. Scott Thomson's senior administrative staff are back on patrol to make up for the 160 officers lost Jan. 18 to help close the city's $26.5 million budget gap.

Beginning April 1, those 50 officers will immediately be deployed to crime hot spots throughout the city's neighborhoods and its business corridors.

"We've seen an uptick in crime -- year-to-date it's up 20 percent, but crime does ebb and flow," Thomson said. "We need to be cautious in what we draw direct correlations to with regard to crime."

He noted that the brazenness of criminals in the city did not go up when the layoffs hit.

"These are people that have dedicated their lives to crime and our job is to intercept them and remove them from society," Thomson said. "I don't think they've been any more emboldened because of layoffs."

The reduction in force may have only been a hiccup in Thomson's forward-leaning stance against drug activity and violent crime. Drug sets were highly visible in North Camden this week, taking advantage of warmer weather.

Gun activity is up, with assaults with firearms increasing 197 percent over this time last year. A burgeoning gang problem doesn't help the cause of public safety either, but Redd had strong words for those carrying out crime.

"To those criminals who may have thought it was open season in the City of Camden -- don't be mistaken, we're out there, we are on the ground and we're coming for you," Redd said.

The city is still waiting for a federal grant that would rehire additional officers.

Earlier this month, Camden City Council passed a resolution accepting a $5.1 million federal grant to rehire laid-off firefighters. The final number of firefighters who'll be recalled won't be known until adoption of the city's budget. It also was unclear how another $4 million PILOT payment from South Jersey Port Corp. will play into the budget proposed by city council.

Redd offered that any plan for police regionalization must account for enhancement or expansion of public safety services, provide job opportunities for Camden residents, be cost effective, and be fair to current officers while working within the city's fiscal constraints.

"We need to continue having open and honest dialogue about the fiscal challenges facing municipalities across our state and consider innovative new approaches that will help us to provide solutions that maintain public safety services while being mindful that financial resources are shrinking," Redd said.

She called change "hard medicine to swallow" but noted the city and its residents can't be afraid to move forward. Redd is backed by Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., who called regionalization of police and fire services "an issue for the future."

"The mayor inherited a very difficult problem, but I think she has done a very good job attacking it and is deserving of credit," Andrews said.

He commended Redd for her ability to work with officials in Trenton as well as in Washington at a time when budget cuts have decimated the city's work force.

"Fiscal realities are forcing change, and as we witnessed in Camden, not everyone is willing to accept that reality," Gov. Christie said in a statement. "So it's time for all of us to assert leadership and work together on a new approach to combine and maximize public safety resources, eliminate redundancies and inefficiencies, and provide a long-term solution to create a new and strong public safety network." For Camden and the region to thrive economically, Andrews noted, public safety must be ensured.

"It's not a stopgap through now and July 1," Andrews said of the PILOT money. "We had some very specific discussions with the state and I'm confident that they're covered forthe next fiscal year as well."

Pete Perez was one of the 60 firefighters laid off in January. Since that time he has helped organize rallies and bring attention to the public safety situation Camden is in currently. He sees Thursday's announcement as a solid first step toward bringing back more department members.

Those 15 rehired represent only a quarter of the firefighters who were laid off. The $5.1 million federal grant received by the city last week will bring back even more.

Both police and fire employees will be rehired off a civil service list. Perez believes he'll be included with the round that includes the federal funding.

"I think that we've seen something positive by getting out in front of City Hall and educating the public saying we're not going to tolerate taking away (public safety) from our citizens and children," Perez said.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/print/article/20110318/NEWS01/103180334/Cops-firefighters-rehired-Camden

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Fourth-grader brings cocaine to Washington D.C. elementary school and shares with classmates: cops

A fourth-grader in Washington, D.C. was charged with drug possession after bringing cocaine to school and sharing it with other students, authorities said.

Four students at Thomson Elementary School either sniffed or swallowed an unknown amount of the drug and were taken to a hospital after complaining they were ill on Thursday.

Police later determined the substance they ingested was cocaine.

D.C. Fire Department spokesman Pete Piringer said the students were fine aside from having sore throats.

School Principal Albert DuPont sent a letter home to shocked parents saying child protective services and the police are trying to determine how the child got the cocaine.

Authorities did not disclose whether the student is a boy or a girl.

"This is not a situation that is typical at Thomson, and we take it very seriously," DuPont wrote. "At school we will address drug awareness as a whole-school issue."

Stuart Hovell, a parent of a fourth-grader at the school, said the incident was disgusting and that he would send his daughter to a different school next year.

"It's sad. It's very sad that this is getting into schools," he said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/03/18/2011-03-18_fourthgrader_brings_cocaine_to_washington_dc_elementary_school_and_shares_with_c.html

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Frpm the Department of Homeland Security

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Secretary Napolitano's Remarks at the U.S.-Mexico Congressional Border Issues Conference

March 17, 2011

Washington, D.C. – Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today delivered remarks at the Annual U.S.-Mexico Congressional Border Issues Conference – highlighting the continued partnership between the United States and Mexico to ensure our mutual security while facilitating trade and travel along the Southwest border.

"Security and prosperity are mutually reinforcing, and the United States and Mexico are closely linked by a common interest in robust security and growing economies," said Secretary Napolitano. "We are committed to continuing to work with Mexico to foster a safe and secure border zone, while facilitating the legal trade and travel that helps our border regions prosper."

In her remarks, Secretary Napolitano underscored the Obama Administration's unprecedented efforts to strengthen security along the Southwest border, which include increasing the number of Border Patrol agents from approximately 10,000 in 2004 to more than 20,700 today; doubling the number of personnel assigned to Border Enforcement Security Task Forces; and deploying approximately one quarter of all U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel to the Southwest border region – the most ever.

Secretary Napolitano also highlighted the unprecedented collaboration between the United States and Mexico to bolster cooperation on law enforcement, intelligence sharing and joint operations along the Southwest border. As part of a broader bilateral effort, the Department has increased joint training programs with Mexican law enforcement agencies and, for the first time in history, Border Patrol agents are coordinating joint operations along the Southwest border with their colleagues in the Mexican Federal Police to combat human trafficking and smuggling in our respective nations.

Secretary Napolitano also discussed the Obama Administration's commitment to streamlining legal trade and travel across the Southwest border – highlighting construction projects at ports of entry in Arizona and California that are modernizing infrastructure at ports of entry to expedite and expand trade and commerce along the border.

The U.S.-Mexico Congressional Border Issues Conference – hosted by the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce and co-chaired by Congressman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) and Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX) – brings together decision-makers from the two nations' capitals and the border region to explore common issues and discuss ongoing efforts and initiatives along the U.S.-Mexico border.

For more information, visit www.dhs.gov.

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1300385312206.shtm

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