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| NEWS of the Day - June 15, 2011 |
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on some issues of interest to the community policing and neighborhood activist across the country
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following group of articles from local newspapers and other sources constitutes but a small percentage of the information available to the community policing and neighborhood activist public. It is by no means meant to cover every possible issue of interest, nor is it meant to convey any particular point of view ...
We present this simply as a convenience to our readership ... |
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From Los Angeles Times
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Report describes gun agents' 'state of panic'
Federal gun agents, concerned about weapons sales to Mexican drug suspects, begged to make arrests but were rebuffed, according to a congressional report on a controversial investigation.
by Kim Murphy
June 14, 2011
Seattle -- Federal gun agents in Arizona -- convinced that "someone was going to die" when their agency allowed weapons sales to suspected Mexican drug traffickers -- made anguished pleas to be permitted to make arrests but were rebuffed, according to a new congressional report on the controversial law enforcement probe.
Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told congressional investigators that there was "a state of panic" that the guns used in the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in January and two U.S. agents in Mexico a month later might have been sold under the U.S. surveillance operation.
"I used the word anxiety. The term I used amongst my peers is pucker factor," Larry Alt, special agent with ATF's Phoenix field division, told investigators preparing a joint staff report for Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The report will be released Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
Neither of those shootings was ultimately linked to the "Fast and Furious" probe, though two weapons sold to a suspect under surveillance were found at the scene of the fatal shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry near Nogales, Ariz., in December.
Terry's family will be among the key witnesses at an oversight committee hearing Wednesday on the ATF operation, under which the bureau allowed purchases of high-powered weapons in an attempt to track their progress into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. According to the report and numerous interviews with The Times, several ATF agents regarded the operation as dangerous and misguided.
At least 195 of the weapons have been traced to Mexico, found mainly at crime scenes, but ATF agents quoted in the report said more than 1,700 firearms were trafficked "to known criminals or cartel elements south of the border and elsewhere" under the operation.
"I cannot see anyone who has one iota of concern for human life being OK with this," Agent John Dodson told committee interviewers.
In one case, Agent Pete Forcelli told the interviewers, an agent was making insistent calls over the radio, saying that gun traffickers had recognized him and begging for permission to stop the suspects. "But he was told to not stop the car with the guns in it," he said.
Dodson said the target was followed picking up money, buying guns and dropping them off somewhere else but recognized he was being followed and made obvious attempts to evade the surveillance. "I mean, there is a verbal screaming match over the radio about how -- what are you talking about? There is no better time or reason to pull this guy over than right now," Dodson related.
Issa and Grassley have been butting heads with ATF supervisors and senior officials at the Justice Department who signed off on the Project Gunrunner operation, which was intended to begin catching the powerful drug cartel traffickers in Mexico and the U.S. who were receiving weapons from the relatively low-level "straw purchasers" who were paid to buy them from U.S. gun dealers.
The two agencies, the Republican congressmen say, have refused to provide documents about the origin, direction and supervision of the operation.
The Justice Department has provided some information, but officials say disclosing their files now could compromise the trial of the traffickers accused of purchasing the weapons found at the scene of Terry's killing, and also that of one of the suspected border bandits, Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, 34, who was arrested at the scene of the Terry shootout and faces charges of second-degree murder.
"Fighting criminal activity along the Southwest border -- including the illegal trafficking of guns to Mexico -- has been a priority of this administration and this Department of Justice. The attorney general takes the allegations that have been raised by some ATF agents about the Fast and Furious operation seriously, which is why he has asked the inspector general to investigate the matter," Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said, adding that the department had made it clear that "under no circumstances should guns be allowed to cross the border into Mexico."
In a letter Monday to Issa, ranking House oversight committee member Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) said that pursuing the probe now broke with past committee policy of standing down until criminal prosecutions are complete. "We're all for conducting a responsible investigation to out any wrongdoing," said Ashley Etienne, Democratic committee spokeswoman. "But we can't do it at the expense of bringing these guys to justice."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-0615-gunrunner,0,3424418,print.story
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Police look at killer Mack Ray Edwards in Ramona Price cold case
Nearly 50 years ago, a 7-year-old girl named Ramona Price took a Saturday morning stroll on a quiet lane on the outskirts of Santa Barbara.
She never returned -- and now police think she may have encountered Mack Ray Edwards, a heavy-equipment operator thought to have killed 15 to 20 children before confessing to six of the murders and hanging himself in his San Quentin prison cell.
On Wednesday morning in Santa Barbara, cadaver dogs will scour the area around a bridge spanning the 101 Freeway at Winchester Road. Edwards -- who was described by his Sylmar neighbors as a "quiet, very nice guy" –- worked on that bridge around the time Ramona vanished.
INTERACTIVE : Track serial killers in South L.A.
Edwards' monstrous legacy is still unfolding. Three years ago, authorities excavated a ramp off the 23 Freeway in Moorpark, seeking the bones of 16-year-old Roger Dale Madison, who disappeared in 1968. They were unsuccessful.
Santa Barbara Police Chief Cam Sanchez is expected Wednesday to identify Edwards as a possible suspect in Ramona Price's death.
Officials cautioned that it's only a possibility -- but one bolstered by Edwards' work on the project and the fact that he temporarily lived with a friend just a quarter-mile away.
The bridge is being renovated so now is a perfect time to investigate the site, officials said.
"The big thing is for us not to not miss this opportunity," said Santa Barbara police cold case investigator Jaycee D. Hunter. "We would be stupid not to do it."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/06/police-look-at-connection-to-serial-killer-mack-ray-edwards-in-ramona-price-case.html
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From Google News ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The War on Drugs Turns 40
by Conor Friedersdorf
In 1971 Richard Nixon declared abuse of narcotics public enemy number 1. Trillions later his views are alive and well.
Police officers, judges, and prison guards opposed to drug prohibition gathered in Washington, D.C., Tuesday to mark an eye-opening milestone: the 40th Anniversary of President Richard Nixon's War on Drugs. "America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse," Nixon declared in a June 17, 1971 press conference . "In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive." Just two years later he escalated his rhetoric yet again, asserting that "this Administration has declared all-out, global war on the drug menace," and creating the Drug Enforcement Agency. Ever since we've been doubling down on the strategy. It has never succeeded, even when we've gone much farther down the "get tough" road than Nixon ever did.
Though the size and cost of the DEA is but a fraction of total spending in the War on Drugs, you'd think its utter failure to stop drug use or the global drug trade would've prevented this from happening:
Almost every year the DEA budget and staff are expanded, never mind if the organization is succeeding or failing at its mission. This isn't the DEA's fault. The illicit trade in narcotics is a black market that cannot be eliminated in a free society. But why do legislators continue to increase its size?
It's especially frustrating when one recalls that presidential candidates have campaigned on the folly of the status quo, been elected to office, and failed to make any significant changes. That first happened when Jimmy Carter was seeking the Oval Office. Here's a quote of his you've likely forgotten or never heard before: "I do favor the decriminalization of marijuana." Under his never enacted plan, an American could've possessed up to an ounce without running afoul of federal law.
As early as 2004, Barack Obama declared the War on Drugs an "utter failure" and promised the federal government would back off if states wanted to permit their residents to use medical marijuana. "What President Obama said during the campaign is now American policy," Attorney General Eric Holder declared shortly after Obama's 2009 inauguration. Alas, it hasn't worked out that way -- and that's a shame since federalism is one way that national politicians can dodge the drug question and give states room to show that pot for cancer patients or decriminalization of soft drugs can be implemented without doing net damage to society.
Norm Stamper, a former Seattle police chief and spokesman for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, put it this way: "It wasn't hard to put together a report showing how the Obama administration continues to wage the failed 'war on drugs' even while pretending to end it. Although President Obama has talked about respecting states' rights to enact medical marijuana laws, his DEA has raided state-legal medical marijuana providers at a higher rate than under the Bush administration. Similarly, this president has continued a Bush-era budget ratio that heavily favors spending on punishment over providing resources for treatment, even though he has said drug addiction should be handled as a health issue."
It's time for the president to live up to his promises.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/06/the-war-on-drugs-turns-40/240472/
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