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From Los Angeles Times

Human Rights Watch urges Bangladesh to end killings by elite force

The Rapid Action Battalion is accused of using torture and extrajudicial executions in its crime fighting operations. The nation's home minister says the group shoots only in self-defense.

by Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times

May 11, 2011

Reporting from New Delhi

A human rights group urged Bangladesh on Tuesday to end torture, extrajudicial killings and related abuses by an elite anticrime force that the organization said had killed nearly 200 people since January 2009, including many allegedly executed while in the unit's custody.

Human Rights Watch further called on the Asian nation to disband the Rapid Action Battalion if its record doesn't improve.

Brad Adams, the group's Asia director, said he doesn't have an exact figure for the number of the reported deaths involved extrajudicial killings since the government of Prime Minister Sheik Hasina Wajed came to power 28 months ago, in part because Human Rights Watch didn't investigate every case.

But the number of "crossfire" deaths, a blanket term the unit uses to justify many of its killings, was significant, Adams said in a telephone interview from Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital.

Bangladeshi Home Minister Shahara Khatun, who oversees the battalion, also known as RAB, criticized the rights group's conclusions.

"RAB personnel only retaliate in self-defense," Khatun said, according to the Bangladeshi online newspaper BDNews24.com. "RAB do not kill anyone, but shoot only when criminals do."

Human Rights Watch says in its 53-page report released Tuesday that the ruling Awami League strongly criticized the rapid-action force when it was in opposition, only to defend its deadly record once the party came to power.

No member of the force or other official has ever been prosecuted for a crossfire killing or other human rights abuse, the report says.

The ruling party's unwillingness to act reflects in part a fear of the army, which has staged coups against civilian leaders and jailed Wajed during a caretaker government, Adams said. It also doesn't want to appear soft on crime, he said.

The rapid-action force, formed in March 2004 amid a crime wave, draws on members of the army, air force, navy, police and other law enforcement groups who serve for a limited time before returning to their units. The battalion, which supporters credit with stemming militant Islamic groups, has killed 732 suspects since its inception.

Human Rights Watch urged foreign governments, including the United States and Britain, to stop working with the battalion until it ended the alleged extrajudicial executions and torture.

Both countries have provided human rights training, and Britain also schooled battalion members in interrogation techniques, according to May 2009 diplomatic cables released by the WikiLeaks group.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-bangladesh-killings-20110511,0,1352202,print.story

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San Diego police chief announces strategy to reduce officer misconduct

Embarrassed by a recent spate of misconduct allegations against his officers, the San Diego police chief Tuesday publicly apologized and announced a series of reforms meant to "greatly reduce future incidents."

"I want to personally apologize to every citizen of San Diego," Police Chief William Lansdowne said at a news conference in front of police headquarters, backed by his command staff and members of the police officers' labor union.

Lansdowne announced that additional personnel will be added to the internal affairs unit that investigates allegations against officers.

Also, a confidential hot line is being established that will be monitored by Lansdowne and a review of the department's use-of-force tactics is underway. Supervisors will be given additional "early intervention" training in how to spot troublesome behavior among officers.

The announcement comes days after a veteran officer was booked into jail for felony drunk driving in an off-duty incident.

There have been nine misconduct cases in recent months involving allegations of excessive force, stalking an ex-girlfriend, burglary, drunk driving, rape, domestic violence and demanding sexual favors from female motorists. Most involved off-duty conduct. One officer has been fired, another forced to resign.

Lansdowne, 67, was named San Diego police chief in 2003 after serving as chief in San Jose and Richmond in Northern California. The San Diego department has 2,100 sworn officers.

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

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Bail denied to man who tried to force his way into cockpit of American Airlines flight

A federal judge denied bail Tuesday to a Yemen native who tried to force his way into the cockpit of an American Airlines flight en route from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to San Francisco International Airport.

Shortly before the end of the Sunday night flight, Rageh Ahmed Mohammed Al-Murisi left his seat near the back of the plane and made his way to the first-class cabin, according to an affidavit filed by Paul A. Howard, a federal air marshal.

A flight attendant saw him trying to open the cockpit door and, thinking he had mistaken it for the restroom, tried to point Al-Murisi in the right direction. At that point, Howard said, Al-Murisi lowered his left shoulder and rammed the cockpit door.

In court on Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Atty. Elise Becker said Al-Murisi was shouting “Allahu Akbar” –- “God is great” in Arabic –- as he was wrestled to the ground. It was the same phrase, she said, that the assailants who hijacked Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, shouted.

Al-Murisi, who has been charged with interfering with a flight crew, had no luggage, was traveling with various forms of identification, $47 and an Apple computer charger. Becker argued Tuesday that he was a threat to the community and a flight risk.

A federal law enforcement source said that Al-Murisi is not tied to any terrorist groups and that there is no terrorism allegation involved.

Judge James Larson denied bail. Al-Murisi is scheduled to be back in court on Friday.

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

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Former gang members: A life sentence of joblessness

It's everyone's business to give former gang members a chance to prove themselves through work.

by Gregory J. Boyle

May 11, 2011

Lorenzo had a hard time concealing his nervousness. Standing in front of a large room packed with Boeing employees in late March, the tall, lanky African American gang member described the arc of his life. At 22, he had spent nearly a third of his life incarcerated.

Peering out of his round, black-rimmed glasses, he talked about his seven months at Homeboy Industries (the largest gang reentry program in the country), and about how he had moved quickly from the janitorial team to become an assistant in the accounting department. "I used to steal money," he said. "Now I'm counting it."

I had the honor of witnessing Lorenzo's seven-month journey from convict to accounting assistant, watching as he became the young man God had in mind when he made him. But despite his remarkable turnaround and the many things he had to offer an employer, Lorenzo's prospects for finding a job outside our program were dim.

Opportunities for second chances are few for people like Lorenzo. Homeboy Industries is about the only game in town. Most employers just aren't willing to look beyond the dumbest or worst thing someone has done.

Another "homie" recently came to me for help after, for the third time, he was let go from a job because his employer had discovered he'd done five years in prison. He told me the boss said, "You're one of our best workers, but we have to let you go." Then, with a desperate sadness, the young man added: "Damn, G. No one told me I'd be getting a life sentence of no work."

The business of second chances is everybody's business. We lose our right to be surprised that California has the highest recidivism rate in the country if we refuse to hire folks who have taken responsibility for their crimes and have done their time.

Even in this alarming economic climate, where the pool of prospective employees is larger than ever, we need to find the moral imperative as a society to secure places in our workforce for those who just need a chance to prove themselves. This can't be the concern only of a large gang rehab center; it must also be part of our collective response to keep our streets safe and our communities healthy.

As a society, we come up lacking in many of the marks of compassion and wisdom by which we measure ourselves as civilized.

We are among the handful of countries that has difficulty distinguishing juveniles from adults where crime is concerned. We are convinced that if a child commits an adult crime, that kid is magically transformed into an adult. Consequently, we try juveniles as adults. We still execute people. And we belong to a small, exclusive club of countries that brands felons forever and denies them voting rights, access to employment and, sometimes, even housing.

Delegations from all over the world visit Homeboy Industries and scratch their heads as we tell them of our difficulty in placing our people in jobs after their time with us. Americans' seeming refusal to believe in a person's ability to redeem himself strikes these folks as foreign indeed.

Waiting for a piece of legislation or an elected official's change of heart would seem unwarranted. Instead, faith communities and networks of employers need to create a groundswell that will afford opportunity to a population long shut out and denied a chance at redemption. And because gang involvement has always been about a lethal absence of hope, making room in the workplace for those who have made mistakes could also make a big difference in our public safety. Such a movement could not be more timely, because jails and prisons in the state will soon begin to release large numbers of inmates to reduce prison crowding and save money.

The Boeing employees who witnessed Lorenzo's testimony knew instantly that they were in the presence of a young man who was a whole lot more than his rap sheet. But two weeks after his talk, Lorenzo was gunned down in a club — the 175th young person I've had to bury in my 25 years working with gang members. Tragically, his death came at the point in his life when Lorenzo had finally begun to imagine his future and not his funeral, though he knew that society's labels would limit him and weigh heavily.

The mark of our society as civilized will come when we embrace confidence in the power of redemption.

Gregory J. Boyle, a Jesuit priest, is executive director and founder of Homeboy Industries. He is the author of "Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-boyle-jobs-20110511,0,5778876,print.story

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From Google News

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Natalee Holloway's mom: She's dead

Beth Holloway came to realization after Stephany Flores' murder in Peru; Also, details on meeting van der Sloot in prison

Nearly six years ago, Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba.

Her mother, Beth Holloway, has been relentless in her pursuit of the truth in her daughter's case, which is still unsolved.

But on "The Early Show" Tuesday, when speaking about her new Lifetime TV series, Beth Holloway admitted she doesn't think her daughter is alive today.

She said she reached the realization after learning of the death of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, allegedly at the hands of Joran van der Sloot in Peru.

She said, "(When) I discovered ferocity in which he murdered Stephany Flores. That put it in perspective for me as to what transpired with Natalee."

Van der Sloot has been charged with Flores' murder and is a "person of interest" in Natalee Holloway's disappearance. Van der Sloot has been in a prison in Lima, Peru, since June 2010, pending trial. Van der Sloot admitted details of Flores' murder to a Peruvian newspaper last year, saying he hit Flores repeatedly after she looked at his laptop. He has, in recent years, admitted to involvement in Natalee Holloway's death and then recanted his accounts.

Holloway told Wragge, "It was after ... the shocking news. For me to hear that Joran had murdered another young woman, I think that's when it all came into perspective for me as to who this young man was, and he's a violent - he's a killer."

Prior to airing her new show, Lifetime also aired a documentary that showed video of Holloway visiting van der Sloot in prison last year in Peru.

Wragge asked Holloway to describe her experience of seeing him behind bars.

"I never could have imagined that I was going to be face-to-face with Joran in prison," Holloway said. "Opportunity presented itself. All parents missing a loved one will do anything and everything. And I decided, 'OK, I want to be face-to-face with him again."'

She said she was able to enter the prison with help from documentary filmmaker Peter De Vries and his team, but said she visited the prison like any other woman that day.

"It was Wednesday afternoon, Ladies' Day. I went through the proper protocol, and it just happened," she said.

Wragge asked if she was able to learn anything from talking to van der Sloot.

She responded, "No, really, as a mother, I didn't go there to get information from Joran. Because, obviously, we can't do that. We've known that's just not going to happen. We're going to go there to get information. Just remind him, I'm still there. Obviously, I'm not going to go anywhere. And show him how easy it was to walk in and be face-to-face with him."

She added, "What I think felt the best to me is when I walked out of there and left him in prison where he belongs."

Though Holloway is still looking for more information about her daughter's disappearance, she's now examining other disturbing and unsolved missing persons cases on her new Lifetime show called "Vanished with Beth Holloway."

Holloway told Wragge the show is an extension of what she's done before with families of missing relatives.

"I had been doing it quietly in the years before (the show)," she said. "It had been five years I had gone in to the search of a missing loved one, just working with law enforcement, helping to organize the search, connecting the family to resources. So now I feel like I had a larger platform, something I never imagined I would be able to help to the depths that we can now."

Holloway said her years of telling high school and college students about personal safety and travel safety have been therapeutic for her.

The show, however, has thrust her message to a larger audience.

"Within every 'Vanished' episode, there is a message of travel safety, personal safety, whether it's something as simple as what we think as parents as the buddy system or bringing your plans full circle, which is how do you want to end your outing at night. So those messages are there, they're the ones we've taught our children all their lives, but I think now they're in such a powerful format, it can open up conversations with your young adults (about) choices to make."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/10/earlyshow/living/parenting/main20061398.shtml

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From the FBI

Tips on Avoiding Fraudulent Charitable Contribution Schemes

In response to the recent tornadoes that affected several Southern states and caused loss of life and flooding that has damaged property, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Center for Disaster Fraud remind the public to be aware of and report any instances of alleged fraudulent activity related to relief operations and funding for victims. Unfortunately, criminals can exploit these tragedies for their own gain by sending fraudulent e-mails and creating phony websites designed to solicit contributions. The FBI has already received complaints alleging fraudulent schemes.

Tips should be reported to the National Center for Disaster Fraud, (866) 720-5721 . The line is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Additionally, e-mails can be sent to disaster@leo.gov, and information can be faxed to (225) 334-4707 .

The National Center for Disaster Fraud was created by the Department of Justice to investigate, prosecute, and deter fraud in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when billions of dollars in federal disaster relief poured into the Gulf Coast region. Its mission has expanded to include suspected fraud from any natural or manmade disaster. More than 20 federal agencies, including the FBI, participate in the National Center for Disaster Fraud, which allows the center to act as a centralized clearinghouse of information related to disaster relief fraud.

The FBI reminds the public to perform due diligence before giving contributions to anyone soliciting donations or individuals offering to provide assistance to those affected by the tornadoes. Solicitations can originate from e-mails, websites, door-to-door collections, flyers, mailings, telephone calls, and other similar methods.

Before making a donation of any kind, consumers should adhere to certain guidelines, including:

• Do not respond to any unsolicited (spam) incoming e-mails, including clicking links contained within those messages, because they may contain computer viruses.
• Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as members of charitable organizations or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social networking sites.
• Beware of organizations with copy-cat names similar to but not exactly the same as those of reputable charities.
• Rather than follow a purported link to a website, verify the legitimacy of nonprofit organizations by utilizing various Internet-based resources that may assist in confirming the group's existence and its nonprofit status.
• Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files because the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders.
• To ensure contributions are received and used for intended purposes, make contributions directly to known organizations rather than relying on others to make the donation on your behalf.
• Do not be pressured into making contributions; reputable charities do not use such tactics.
• Be aware of whom you are dealing with when providing your personal and financial information. Providing such information may compromise your identity and make you vulnerable to identity theft.
• Avoid cash donations if possible. Pay by credit card or write a check directly to the charity. Do not make checks payable to individuals.
• Legitimate charities do not normally solicit donations via money transfer services. Most legitimate charities' websites end in .org rather than .com.

Consumers can also report suspicious e-mail solicitations or fraudulent websites to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, www.ic3.gov

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