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From Los Angeles Times

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Suspected members of an Iraqi drug-trafficking organization are arrested

Authorities in El Cajon arrest 60 suspects and seize more than $630,000 in cash, as well as marijuana and high-powered guns and explosives from an El Cajon group, which allegedly has ties to a Mexican cartel and organized crime in Detroit.

by Robert J. Lopez and Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times

August 19, 2011

Sixty reputed members of an Iraqi drug-trafficking organization in El Cajon have been arrested and authorities seized more than $630,000 in cash, 3,500 pounds of marijuana, dozens of high-powered firearms and several explosive devices, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

The organization was run out of a social club and has suspected links to the ruthless Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico and an Iraqi organized crime syndicate in Detroit, according to law enforcement officials.

The social club, located on East Main Street, has been a "hub of criminal activity conducted by Iraqi organized crime," El Cajon police Chief Pat Sprecco said.

According to authorities, over the last decade the club has been the center of other investigations for alleged drug sales, gambling, car theft and gun smuggling.

The undercover investigation that led to the latest arrests and seizures, dubbed Operation Shadowbox, has been underway since January as investigators gathered evidence, arrested suspects and served search warrants. A search warrant was served Wednesday at the club, where authorities seized $16,000 and uncovered evidence of illegal gambling, Sprecco said.

Over the years, thousands of Chaldean Christians fled Iraq and arrived in the United States to start new lives in cities such as Detroit and El Cajon, where about one-quarter of the roughly 96,000 residents have Iraqi ancestry.

The undercover operation announced Thursday found connections between the club and members of a suspected Iraqi Chaldean crime organization in Detroit, according to officials with the Police Department and the San Diego branch of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Operatives from the Sinaloa Cartel, Mexico's most powerful crime organization, supplied the El Cajon traffickers with large amounts of marijuana, which was sold in Detroit for up to three times the purchase value, DEA spokeswoman Eileen Zeidler said.

"That's a typical drug-trafficking pattern," Zeidler told The Times.

In April, an undercover agent was shown a grenade and told that other grenades were available for sale from a Mexican military source, Sprecco said.

Four improvised explosive devices were seized by authorities during the investigation. Police said the 34 confiscated firearms included semiautomatic assault rifles and several fully automatic weapons.

Half of the suspects arrested are expected to be charged with state violations, including sales, possession for sales, conspiracy to distribute narcotics and pharmaceuticals, and possession of firearms by convicted felons, authorities said.

The others will be charged in federal court on suspicion of participating in a continuing criminal enterprise; conspiracy to distribute and distribution of narcotics, marijuana and pharmaceuticals; conspiracy to import marijuana; and possession and distribution of automatic weapons.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-iraqi-mexican-20110819,0,7429906,print.story

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U.S. will review cases of 300,000 illegal immigrants in deportation proceedings

The Obama administration aims to identify 'low-priority' offenders, including the elderly, crime victims and people who have lived in the United States since childhood.

by Christopher Goffard, Paloma Esquivel and Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times

August 19, 2011

The Obama administration said it will review the cases of 300,000 illegal immigrants currently in deportation proceedings to identify "low-priority" offenders — including the elderly, crime victims and people who have lived in the U.S. since childhood — with an eye toward allowing them to stay.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the review as the Obama administration has sought to counter criticism that it has been too harsh in its deportation policies. By launching the case-by-case review, officials said they are refocusing deportation efforts on convicted felons and other "public safety threats."

The administration's action was cheered bysome illegal immigrants, notably college students who have been pushing Congress to pass the Dream Act, which would allow them to stay in the country.

"It makes me happy and hopeful," said Rigoberto Barboza, 21, an undocumented student at Mt. San Antonio College who supports a family of five with a $9-an-hour job at a fast-food restaurant. He said his mother, who brought him to the U.S. from Mexico when he was a boy, is facing deportation. "I hope they go through my mother's case, stop her deportation and, if possible, get her a work permit."

But critics labeled the plan as a "blanket amnesty" for a large group of illegal immigrants.

This "clearly demonstrates the Obama administration's defiance of both the constitutional separation of powers and the will of the American public," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Immigration experts said the move reflects Obama's attempt to push his immigration policy forward at a time when the Congress has rebuffed the Dream Act and other immigration initiatives his administration has sought.

Jon Feere, a legal analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies, which has sought tougher restrictions on immigration, said this was "an effort by President Obama to appeal to some Latino voters, but the overwhelming majority of Americans want strong enforcement."

Some immigrant rights advocates were skeptical about Obama's plan. "We've heard elegant statements of priorities before," said Chris Newman of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "I don't know what today has changed."

The administration's stated policy has long been that certain groups of illegal immigrants, such as so-called Dream Act-eligible students who were brought here as children, were not the focus of the immigration department's efforts.

But the new announcement is the administration's strongest yet about its immigration priorities, however, and comes amid recent criticism of the Secure Communities immigration enforcement program.

The program, which uses fingerprints gathered by local and state police to aid federal authorities in identifying criminals to be deported, has sparked protests across the country in recent days. Critics say it victimizes immigrants who have not been convicted of any crime.

This week, U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ordered the release of hundreds of documents that she said showed how immigration officials have deceived states and local governments on how the program would work.

"There is ample evidence that ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and DHS [Department of Homeland Security] have gone out of their way to mislead the public about Secure Communities," Scheindlin wrote in an opinion on the release of the documents. "In particular, these agencies have failed to acknowledge a shift in policy when it is patently obvious — from public documents and statements — that there has been one."

Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security told governors that the fingerprint-sharing program did not need their approval to operate and that it was voiding agreements signed to authorize their states' participation.

The documents were released as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

One document, titled "Updated Messaging for Secure Communities" and dated Sept. 24, 2010, outlines how the agency changed the way the program was presented to the public two years after it started.

The changes include "less emphasis on partnering and collaboration with local law enforcement." The document also says "emphasis is now on ICE receiving fingerprint matches from federal information sharing, not from the fingerprints submitted by local law enforcement."

About that same time, the agency seemed to be struggling with whether the program could be considered mandatory.

In one July 2010 email, officials discuss how they will respond to then-Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, who was asking whether localities can drop out of the program.

In the email, sent by an ICE employee to Peter Vincent, an agency legal advisor, the employee tells Vincent: "I believe SC is a voluntary program … as the jurisdiction has to enter into an MOA [memorandum of agreement] with SC before the interoperability (ability to bounce criminals' fingerprints off our databases) is turned on." The official also says he doubts whether the state could mandate participation of jurisdictions within its boundaries.

In another email dated Aug. 6, 2010, an upset Secure Communities employee addresses confusing public messaging about the program:

"We never address whether or not it is mandatory — the answer is written to sound like it is but doesn't state it," the employee writes. "It's very convoluted — or is that the point? I'm all about shades of gray but this really is a black-and-white question.… Is it mandatory? Yes or No. OK, so not such an easy question to answer."

In another exchange, dated October 2010, between Secure Communities Executive Director David Venturella and Margo Schlanger, U.S. Homeland Security's officer for civil rights and civil liberties, shows Schlanger repeatedly asking for clarification from Venturella about whether states and localities can opt in or out of the program.

That exchange, which was initially withheld by the agency on the basis that it was a deliberative conversation, was ordered released by the judge.

"There is nothing deliberative or predecisional about the exchange," Judge Scheindlin wrote. "Instead the exchange reflects a request from one part of the agency for clarification as to what the policy is, met with clearly obfuscating answers from another part of the agency."

Senate Democrats pushing for immigration reform welcomed the new policy. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) , said it would "alleviate some of the pressure on our broken immigration system." Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), coauthor of the Dream Act bill that would grant a path to citizenship for immigrant students, described the policy as "a fair and just way to deal with an important group of immigrant students."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0819-obama-immigration-20110819,0,3173438,print.story

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California's prisoner shuffle

The state can't meet the medical needs of inmates. How can counties be expected to do better?

by Lois Davis

August 19, 2011

The reality that tens of thousands of California state prisoners may soon be sent to local lockups is beginning to hit home. Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich likens the impending prisoner influx to a "bar scene — a violent bar scene that you saw in 'Star Wars.'"

That may be overstating the case. But the fact is that the U.S. Supreme Court decision ordering California to reduce its prison population by 30,000 — to be achieved in part by having more low-level offenders serve their time in county jails — is going to have serious repercussions.

The most obvious may be, as Antonovich alluded to, public safety. Jails, many of which are already overcrowded, are likely to become more crowded, and they often lack the capacity to provide the rehabilitative services needed by this population. Local criminal justice systems are also likely to come under additional strain.

And there's another consequence that hasn't been talked about as much: The strain on local budgets of trying to meet the healthcare needs of this population. The chief reason the court ordered a reduction in the prison population was the failure of the state to meet the basic medical needs of prisoners. Can strapped local governments really do any better?

Many of those incarcerated, whether in state prisons or county jails, have significant medical, mental health and drug treatment needs that counties are ill-equipped to handle. Many also have chronic conditions or infectious diseases that need to be treated and managed. And of course these prisoners ultimately return to our communities, bringing their medical needs to places where the healthcare safety net is fraying at best.

The problems the prisoners contend with are serious. It is well known that California prisoners tend to be disproportionately sicker on average than the California population. The Rand Corp.'s ongoing study on the public health implications of prisoner reentry has found that 18% of California inmates report having been diagnosed with hypertension, 8% with cardiac problems and 5% with diabetes — all chronic conditions that require medical management.

Moreover, 13% reported having been diagnosed with tuberculosis, 13% with hepatitis and 9% with sexually transmitted diseases. If left untreated, such infectious diseases have implications for the public health of the communities to which ex-offenders will return.

California inmates' needs for mental health and drug treatment services are even more substantial. About 55% of inmates reported a recent history of or symptoms of mental illness. Of those with recent symptoms, 20% reported symptoms of major depression, 42% reported symptoms of mania disorder and 16% reported symptoms of a psychotic disorder. In terms of substance abuse or dependence, 58% of California inmates reported symptoms that met the diagnostic criteria for drug abuse or dependence, and 55% for alcohol abuse or dependence.

Although these percentages are high, because they are self-reported data these findings are not directly comparable to estimates of prevalence. However, we know from national studies that the prevalence of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder is three to five times higher in the inmate population than it is in the total U.S. population. The prevalence of bipolar disorder among the U.S. state prison population is nearly three times greater than it is in the U.S. population as a whole. Based on data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an estimated 9.7% of Californians age 18 years or older in 2007 met the diagnostic criteria for alcohol or illicit drug dependence or abuse, a far lower percentage than that reported by California inmates.

We have studied where prisoners go when they are released, using state parolee data to track their return to California's 58 counties and to specific communities within those counties. And we have looked at the healthcare, mental health and substance abuse facilities in those communities: the safety nets. What we found is that ex-offenders tend to return to California communities with the least amount of healthcare, mental health and substance abuse resources.

So where does that leave us? The state has been unable to meet the medical needs of prisoners, a disproportionate number of whom are afflicted by chronic ailments, so we are going to transfer them to county jails, from which they will eventually be released into the communities that are least able to help them. This does not sound like a solution.

The nub of the issue is the increased demand for healthcare services that prisoners and ex-prisoners pose for communities, an issue that tends to get lost in discussions about the potential impact of the Supreme Court's decision on counties.

The state needs to deal with prison overcrowding and inadequate medical care for prisoners in ways that don't simply transfer the burden to county criminal justice systems and the healthcare safety nets of local communities. If the state shifts responsibility to counties, it will also need to shift enough money to fund the treatment needs of this population.

Lois Davis is a senior policy researcher at the Rand Corp. and the author of "Understanding the Public Health Implications of Prisoner Reentry in California: Phase I Report."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-davis-prisoners-state-prisons-20110819,0,873634,print.story

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From Google News

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Tennessee

Editorial: A badge, a gun, a smiling face

We're looking forward to the new police director's plan for community policing.

August 19, 2011

Officer Friendly is our favorite police officer. Notice we didn't use the familiar acronym for constable on patrol. It doesn't feel right to call Officer Friendly a cop.

He -- or she, as the case may be -- is a symbol of the kind of police officer who cares about the community, who's out to prevent crime from happening, who's one of us.

And he -- or she -- will live on in Memphis, in some form or other, it was gratifying to learn this week.

Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong plans to eliminate the department's CO-ACT program, its version of the school of law enforcement known as community policing.

But the concept will be retained in a specific program to be announced later, and that's good news.

There is no great body of empirical evidence suggesting that community policing is guaranteed to drive down crime rates. Studies of the technique have produced mixed results.

But when police officers put themselves in a position to interact with the community on a regular basis -- and don't have to limit themselves to responding to complaints -- the quality of life in the community improves.

In Memphis, the CO-ACT program seems to have withered. Many of the substations assigned to various communities are unmanned.

But Armstrong has emphasized community policing as a cornerstone of his administration.

Armstrong also plans to maintain an initiative promoted by former police director Larry Godwin called Blue CRUSH (Crime Reduction Utilizing Statistical History), which relies on data to determine where police resources would most efficiently be deployed.

Community policing might not have the scientific cachet of Blue CRUSH, but it is designed to produce the kind of police-citizen relationships that make communities more pleasant places to live.

Of course, officers who engage in it have to have skills that go beyond knowledge of the law and how to enforce it. Social media are becoming more and more important to its application.

We'll eagerly wait to see what Armstrong has in mind.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/aug/19/editorial-a-badge-a-gun-a-smiling-face/?print=1

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Launching the “If You See Something, Say Something” TV and Radio PSAs

While unveiling the PSAs, I also announced a new partnership between DHS and the Chamber of Commerce to engage the public in the “If You See Something, Say Something ™” campaign. Over the last 2 years, we've partnered numerous companies and organizations including the NCAA, the NBA, the NFL, the Indy 500, Walmart, the Mall of America, the American Hotel & Lodging Association, and others.

As I've said in the past, hometown security is the key to homeland security. Time and again, we've seen terrorist attacks thwarted by alert individuals who notify authorities when something just doesn't seem right. For instance, just a few weeks ago, the owner of a gun store near Ft. Hood called authorities when an individual in his store was behaving in a suspicious manner. His actions may have helped prevent a potential attack.

Security is a shared responsibility and we all have a role to play.

You can learn more about the “If You See Something, Say Something™” campaign on our website.

http://blog.dhs.gov/2011/08/launching-if-you-see-something-say.html

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