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From Los Angeles Times

Human rights groups urge Congress to investigate Border Patrol's use of deadly force

Lawmakers are asked to look into a policy that allows agents to shoot at rock throwers along the U.S.-Mexico border. The ACLU and others argue that the practice is inhumane.

by Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times

June 25, 2011

A coalition of immigrant and human rights groups Friday urged Congress to investigate the Border Patrol's use of deadly force against rock throwers along the U.S.-Mexico border, saying the frequency of such confrontations is disturbing and inhumane.

The request came three days after an agent in San Diego fatally shot a 40-year-old Tijuana man suspected of injuring an agent by throwing rocks and a nail-studded wooden board.

Such incidents typically lead to demands for congressional scrutiny, but Congress in recent years has not taken up the issue. The letter, addressed to congressional committees, was signed by 65 national and regional groups, including the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties and Amnesty International.

Although confrontations between agents and smugglers have declined substantially in recent years, rock throwing is not uncommon in many urban areas where trafficking groups use aggressive tactics to prevent agents from arresting illegal immigrants.

Last year, agents in El Paso killed a teenage boy who was reportedly throwing rocks at them. Other alleged rock throwers were killed in the Arizona towns of Nogales and Douglas within the last year, according to the ACLU.

Agents involved in fatal shooting incidents are usually cleared of wrongdoing by local and federal authorities. The agency has said deadly force is justifiable because rocks and other objects can cause disabling and sometimes fatal injuries. Numerous agents have been hospitalized over the years because of head wounds, authorities said.

Critics argue that countering rocks with bullets amounts to an unacceptable and disproportionate use of force and should be stopped.

"Deadly force should always be an action of last resort and only used if an imminent risk of death is present … to shoot stone throwers is exceptionally disproportionate and inhumane," the letter states.

Authorities declined to comment on the investigation into this week's shooting. A leading Tijuana newspaper, Frontera, provided some details about the victim, reporting that he had been caught trying to cross the border 17 times since the 1990s. Citing official sources, the newspaper reported that the man worked as a mechanic and was also suspected of being a human smuggler.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-border-protest-20110625,0,1765112,print.story

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Driver hits 88-year-old woman while texting, police say

A 24-year-old North Hollywood motorist is facing felony reckless driving charges after he allegedly struck an 88-year-old Burbank woman while he was texting.

Jerome Deveas was driving westbound on North Glenoaks Boulevard and made a left turn onto North Buena Vista Street at 3:40 p.m. on May 10 when he allegedly hit the woman as she was using a marked crosswalk. This week, he asked for more time to find an attorney.

After a weeks-long investigation, Burbank police detectives determined that the victim was following the law when crossing the street and Deveas' texting “significantly contributed to the collision.”

According to Los Angeles County Superior Court documents, the woman suffered serious injuries, including a bone fracture, from the accident. She continues to recover at a rehab center, Det. Paul Orlowski told 818 Now.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/06/driving-texting.html

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Tim Rutten: Whitey Bulger and the lure of those on the lam

There's something about the fugitive experience that makes us momentarily regret the criminal's capture.

Tim Rutten

June 25, 2011

I'm sure I'm not the only person who entertained a momentary twinge of regret Wednesday night when I heard that James (Whitey) Bulger, the legendary South Boston gangster, had been apprehended after 16 years on the run. There's something about the fugitive experience that holds our lawless imaginations in thrall, and with a capture of this sort, a dim candle gutters out somewhere in our private romantic firmaments.

It's a momentary experience for the sensible and the moderately mature, because there's absolutely nothing about Whitey Bulger even vaguely romantic or slightly sympathetic. Murder for hire, loan sharking and extortion were the pillars of his career. There's nothing clever or amusing about those lines of work; they're up-close-and-personal sorts of crimes that attract sadists and sociopaths, and there's more than ample evidence that Bulger is both.

Knowing that, why the vague stirring of remorse over his capture — let alone the calls reportedly coming into some Boston talk shows in which listeners wonder whether Whitey could have been all that bad or repeat hand-me-down stories of his purported kindnesses to those he didn't victimize?

The romantic notion of the fugitive runs deep and old in Western culture. Robin Hood may be its first expression, and it's fascinating to note that the longer a fugitive eludes the authorities, the more likely it is that stories of his "Robinesque" attributes will attach themselves like narrative barnacles to his story. It isn't the individual and actual fugitives who are admired but the vicarious and exhilarating fantasy — however momentary — of a life lived beyond the reach of authority.

It's fascinating, moreover, to see how this undercurrent of sympathy persists in the face of what seems to be inevitably deflating reality. Bulger, for example, was said to have prepared for life on the lam by frequent trips to learn the cultures of other countries, salting false passports and cash in countries around the world. As the years went by, he was "spotted" in Dublin, walking through the lobby of an elegant London hotel and attired in an impeccable suit in Washington. For years the FBI reported that its last "credible" sighting had him in London in 2002.

We know now that shortly after fleeing Boston with his companion, Catherine Greig, the pair settled in a slightly shabby rent-controlled apartment a few blocks from the beach in Santa Monica. Bulger, now 81, took walks in the nearby park, trailed after Catherine on her trips to the local farmers market and reportedly spent most of his time lying on the couch watching television as he slipped more deeply into senile dementia.

It's hard, in fact, not to be struck by the similarity to that "other" fugitive recently brought to well-deserved justice — Osama bin Laden. For years, we were told — and his legions of admirers wanted to believe — that the "emir" was eluding the combined might of the Western powers, riding a white horse through mountain passes and taking his night's rest in remote caves in Pakistan's tribal highlands. As it turns out, he was — like Bulger — hiding in what amounted to prosaic plain sight: in a shabby walled compound whose inhabitants reportedly subsisted on what vegetables they could scratch from their little garden and a weekly goat delivered from outside. Bin Laden, at the end, was a bent old man, sitting shrouded in a blanket with a TV remote control, watching recordings of himself.

The other deflating reality has to do with the fantasy of pursuit. We all carry a film model in our minds of an all-knowing, always active authority that tracks fugitives like Bulger and Bin Laden. In fact, those efforts are sometimes far less fearsome than they seem. As former FBI official Robert Wittman told The Times' Jason Felch this week: "There was an entire squad in the Boston FBI office called the Whitey Bulger squad. They spent 20 years looking for him all over the world, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to find him. The whole time he was in California." Bin Laden was a quick walk from a Pakistani military academy.

None of the sensible among us entertains the least sympathy for murderous thugs like Bulger, let alone a creature like Bin Laden; it's the fantasy of the fugitive life that resonates. Is there anyone, after all, who somewhere in the anarchic corner of his heart doesn't hope that D.B. Cooper has found contentment on some gentle beach?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0625-rutten-20110625,0,6116796,print.column

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From Google News

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In Boston mob story, a tale of 2 brothers, the alleged gangster and the ex-Senate president

BOSTON — It has all the hallmarks of a Greek tragedy: two brothers whose lives diverge radically — one into an underworld of crime, the other into the upper echelons of state politics — yet whose fates remain inextricably linked.

Generations of Boston residents have watched that story play out in the real-life drama of former Democratic Senate President William “Billy” Bulger and his older brother, alleged gangster James “Whitey” Bulger.

At the heart of the story, at least for the younger Bulger, was a fierce loyalty to family and the shared experience of growing up in the working class Irish-American enclave of South Boston, where the line between brawling and bare-knuckled politics was easily blurred.

The two brothers also shared one more thing: a willingness to use whatever power was available to them.

In William's case, that was a savviness for street-smart politics that propelled him into one of the most powerful positions on Beacon Hill, where he earned a reputation for arm-twisting that rarely saw him lose a battle.

For Whitey, according an inch-thick pile of indictments, that power came at the barrel of a gun and a coterie of enforcers.

Whitey's surprising arrest after 16 years on the run to face 19 murder charges this week has again thrust the brothers' story into the spotlight.

It's a relationship that would dog William Bulger throughout his career, ultimately forcing his resignation as president of the University of Massachusetts system in 2003 after he testified before a congressional committee investigating the FBI's ties to his brother, who by then had been revealed as an FBI informant.

After receiving immunity, William acknowledged receiving a call from Whitey shortly after he fled.

“The tone of it was ‘Don't believe everything that is being said about me,'” William Bulger said. “I think he asked me to tell everybody he was OK. ... I think I said I hope this has a happy ending.”

Two years earlier, William Bulger had told a grand jury he didn't urge his brother to surrender because he didn't “think it would be in his interest to do so,” according to a transcript of his testimony obtained by The Boston Globe.

“It's my hope that I'm never helpful to anyone against him,” the younger Bulger said, according to the transcript. “I don't feel an obligation to help everyone to catch him.”

Among those pressing William Bulger to resign from his university post was then-Republican Gov. Mitt Romney.

For William Bulger it was a role as defender of his brother that he'd long ago accepted, even as Whitey allegedly disappeared into an increasingly violent criminal netherworld.

In his 1996 memoir “While the Music Lasts,” William Bulger described Whitey, five years his senior, as being in “a constant state of revolt,” and as “restless as a claustrophobic in a dark closet.”

Whitey kept himself in top physical shape, neither smoke nor drank, shunned addictive drugs, and had “an abundance of good humor and a wildly creative talent for impish mischief,” his brother wrote.

But William Bulger also said Whitey found himself in trouble with police and once ran away to join the circus — signing on with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus as a roustabout. The older brother joined the Air Force but had trouble conforming and was later discharged.

“He was just being Jim,” Bulger wrote.

William Bulger said that it was around this time that Whitey fell in with a crowd involved in bank holdups and in 1956 was convicted of involvement in three bank robberies and sentenced to 20 years. He served part of what turned out to be an 11-year sentence in Alcatraz.

Four years after Whitey's conviction, William was first elected to the Massachusetts House.

In the years following Whitey's release, William blamed the press for spreading what he called “lurid allegations” about his brother, speculating that some of the “dark rumors” were nothing more than political attacks on him.

As Whitey's criminal activities allegedly turned more brutal, William Bulger rose through the Statehouse ranks. In 1970 he won a Senate seat and eight years later was elected Senate president by the 40-member chamber, a position he would hold for a record 17 years.

Even after Whitey fled in 1995 of the eve of his indictment on racketeering charges, William remained loyal, accusing overzealous prosecutors of buying testimony with promises of early release from prison.

“It has been known for many years that a ‘get out of jail' card has been available to anyone who would give testimony against my brother,” he wrote.

At the same time, William was earning a reputation as a tough-minded leader who rewarded supporters and punished critics.

Warren Tolman, a former Democratic senator who was among those critics, served briefly under him.

Tolman said that although he often found himself at loggerheads with William Bulger, he felt Bulger treated him fairly and could be “a charming guy” when he wanted.

Still, Bulger wasn't shy about using his political might.

Tolman said after he was able to prevent a transportation funding proposal from passing by a single vote, Bulger, who opposed the measure, used his muscle to flip a vote, forcing the proposal through.

“By and large he got his way whenever he wanted,” Tolman said. “You knew that if you took him on it was going to be an uphill battle.”

Tolman said he never recalled open discussions about Bulger's brother even his Senate colleagues “certainly knew of the legend of Whitey Bulger.”

“I don't think anyone ever realized the scope of the dastardly deeds he's accused of,” Tolman said.

Occasionally the lines between politics and the underworld blurred.

In 1994, then-state Sen. William Keating led a group of like-minded liberal lawmakers in an attempt to oust Bulger as Senate president.

Although the challenge failed, the campaign against Keating was fierce. Keating said his supporters from South Boston told him that Whitey had paid people to travel to Keating's district to hold signs for his Republican opponent.

Keating said he had his own brief run-in with the reputed mobster, who approached him and lit into him with a barrage of profanity-laced insults for trying to take down his brother.

Keating, who went on to become Norfolk District Attorney before being elected to Congress last year, said he's friends with a family who lost a loved one to Whitey's violence, according to the indictments against him.

“There's a tendency to glamorize abuse of power and a tendency to glamorize the gangster life, but as a district attorney I was there as they were unearthing the bodies of (Whitey Bulger's) victims,” Keating said. “It's not funny and it's not glamorous. It was savage and it was brutal.”

In a written statement following Whitey's arrest this week, William Bulger said he wished to “express my sympathy to all the families hurt by the calamitous circumstances of this case.”

Then, during Whitey's brief appearance in federal court in Boston on Friday, the aging brothers had a fleeting reunion of sorts. Whitey, now 81, smiled at his younger brother and mouthed the word ‘Hi.' William smiled back.

William, speaking briefly to reporters as he left the courthouse, appeared emotional.

“It's an unusual experience,” he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/in-boston-mob-story-a-tale-of-2-brothers-the-alleged-gangster-and-the-ex-senate-president

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Judge blocks parts of Indiana immigration law

The preliminary injunction granted by U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker comes as a blow to lawmakers in the Republican-dominated state legislature who this year have taken a get-tough approach to immigration.

Barker's decision was in response to a lawsuit filed with backing from the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and the National Immigration Law Center.

The judge's decision temporarily blocks a provision of the state law signed in May and scheduled to take effect July 1 that allows state and local police to arrest anyone ordered deported by an immigration court.

Barker faulted the Indiana bill for not requiring the arrested person be brought before a judge for potential release. She noted that under federal law, a foreign national can seek to overturn an immigration judge's removal order and be freed on bond.

The judge also blocked a section of the law that would prohibit any person in the state, other than a police officer, from knowingly accepting or offering a consular ID card as a valid form of identification.

Barker said in her judgment that states such as Indiana have sought to enact immigration laws that do not run afoul of federal powers.

"Unfortunately, insofar as Indiana's efforts to carve out such a permissible role, at least with regard to the two sections of the statute under review here, their results have proven to be seriously flawed and generally unsuccessful," Barker wrote in her judgment.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said in a statement the ruling represented "an indictment of the federal government" for failing to "enact and enforce immigration policy."

"It underscores the challenge to Indiana and other state lawmakers who have tried to respond to Washington's failure," Zoeller said.

A spokeswoman for Mitch Daniels, the state's Republican governor, said the governor's office would not issue comment Friday on the ruling.

Several U.S. states have this year passed legislation cracking down on illegal immigration, inspired by Arizona, where Republican governor Jan Brewer signed a law in April 2010 including a measure requiring police to determine the immigration status of those they have detained and suspect are in the country illegally.

Key parts of that law were blocked by a federal judge, after the Obama administration successfully sued arguing that it improperly infringed on federal powers. The ruling was upheld by an appeals court, although Arizona is taking its challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Utah and Georgia have also faced legal challenges to their state laws passed this year, while Alabama and South Carolina, which passed measures in June, are also likely to face legal challenges.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/25/us-indiana-immigration-idUSTRE75O09R20110625

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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CBP Joins CPSC in Promoting Fireworks Safety

Dan Baldwin, CBP's executive director of cargo and conveyance security, was one of the officials who spoke at the event. Import safety is a priority trade issue for CBP. The agency works with the CPSC as well as nearly 50 other government agencies to enforce their import regulations and to stop unsafe and illicit goods such as illegal fireworks from entering the country.

(Video: CBP Joins Effort to Stress Fireworks Safety)

The event began with remarks from CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum, who welcomed those attending and announced that last year there were approximately 6,300 reported injuries involving fireworks during the 30 days surrounding the Independence Day holiday, which translates to approximately 200 injuries a day. About 40 percent of the injuries were related to firecrackers, bottle rockets, and sparklers.

“Consumers should never assume that a fireworks device is safe based on its size. By knowing the dangers of all types of fireworks, consumers can prevent tragedies,” said Tenenbaum. “I want the public to know that the federal government, your federal government, is working together to keep illegal fireworks out of the country, to catch those who bring them in, and to make sure consumer fireworks meet U.S. product safety rules.”

Baldwin expanded upon this message.

“The partnership that we've been able to build with the Consumer Product Safety Commission is pivotal in our fight against threats as they come across our border,” he said. “Last year over $200 million worth of fireworks were imported into this country. Keeping tabs on how safe these products are is absolutely critical.”

During the last few years, said Baldwin, the two agencies have worked together even more closely.

“We have taken an unprecedented extra step to incorporate CPSC expertise directly to identify potentially unsafe shipments for CBP to check at our ports,” he said. “By collocating CPSC personnel in our Import Safety Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center here in Washington and at various ports throughout the country, we are using all available information to help stop unsafe imports before they enter the commerce of the United States.”

In 2010, with assistance from CBP, the CPSC staff sampled and tested shipments of imported fireworks at U.S. ports of entry to see if they were in compliance with the Federal Hazardous Substance Act. Of the shipments that were targeted, nearly 43 percent contained noncompliant fireworks.

“We're very happy that we stopped those goods from entering the commerce, but much of that effort requires the due diligence of the American consumer – to make sure that they are clearly understanding what they're buying and that the products are safe,” said Baldwin.

Following the remarks, CPSC conducted a demonstration using sparklers, illegal fireworks, gel fuels, and a “quick match” fuse to show the dangers of professional explosive devices.

- Marcy Mason, Office of Public Affairs

http://cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/highlights/firework_safety.xml

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