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| NEWS of the Day - February 25, 2012 |
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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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Death penalty: Cost of execution drugs -- and executions -- rises by Molly Hennessy-Fiske
February 24, 2012
Reporting from Houston
The cost of executions is soaring, especially in the state that conducts the most: Texas. The reason? The necessary drugs have become increasingly hard to get.
A year ago it cost the Texas Department of Criminal Justice $83.55 for the drugs used to carry out an execution -- sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.
Then last March the state was forced to replace sodium thiopental with pentobarbital after the U.S. supplier of the former drug halted distribution amid international protests. The same month, two death row inmates sued the state, alleging the decision to switch drugs was made in secret without public input; they called for a federal inquiry.
Switching to pentobarbital, also known as Nembutal, raised the cost of drugs for each execution to $1,286.86.
"While the cost of the other two drugs may have gone up, the difference is primarily due to pentobarbital,” Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told The Times on Friday.
Further, the Danish manufacturer of pentobarbital, Lundbeck, has announced that the drug is unsafe for use in lethal injections and restricted its sale for executions.
Texas prison officials say they have enough of the drug to carry out the five executions scheduled this year, but they declined to comment about how much of the drug they have or what they plan to do if supplies run low.
Prison officials are seeking a ruling from Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott before releasing execution drug records, Clark said.
“We're not releasing information on our supplier, the amount we paid for specific drugs and the amount of drugs on hand,” Clark said. “The agency is seeking an AG's opinion to keep the information confidential.”
Last year Texas executed 13 inmates. The next scheduled execution is Feb. 29. George Rivas, 41, is set to die for the murder of a Dallas-area police officer during an armed robbery in 2000.
The price increase in execution drugs is also being felt in Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio, Mississippi and South Carolina.
Oregon purchased $18,000 worth of the drugs last year, but the execution for which they were planned was ultimately called off by the governor -- who said he would approve no others. Corrections officials in other states had hoped they might be able to buy some of the leftover pentobarbital, but Oregon officials said last month that they had returned the drug to a wholesaler.
The execution drug shortage was highlighted earlier this month in a report in the Guardian about an investigation by the London-based human rights group Reprieve. Maya Foa, with the group's Stop Lethal Injection Project, estimated the remaining stocks of pentobarbital in Georgia and Texas based on public records.
Foa calculated that Texas had 27 vials of pentobarbital left. The state needs four vials per execution -- two to inject the prisoner, two as backup -- meaning the state has enough for at least six executions, she estimated.
She estimated that Georgia had 17 vials of pentobarbital, enough for four executions.
Reached in London on Friday, Foa declined to comment about the estimates.
Georgia replaced sodium thiopenthal with pentobarbital in lethal injections last year. A corrections spokeswoman on Friday told The Times that the switch drove up costs, but she could not say by how much. She declined to say how much of the drug the department had on hand.
"The department has an adequate supply of all pharmaceuticals necessary to carry out any court-ordered execution procedures," spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan told The Times.
She and Clark, the Texas official, declined to comment about Foa's findings, citing security concerns.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-execution-drugs-20120224,0,5054440,print.story
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3rd-grader charged in classmate shooting made 'terrible mistake'
by Kim Murphy
February 24, 2012 , 1:15 p.m.
Reporting from Seattle— An 8-year-old girl who was shot in her elementary school classroom in Bremerton, Wash., is “out of the woods,” her doctor says, though she remains in critical condition on a ventilator.
Meanwhile, there are shattered lives all around her: The teacher who couldn't believe a gun had just fired, apparently accidentally, in her third-grade classroom. The frightened 9-year-old boy who had the weapon in his backpack, clad in an orange jail jumpsuit and breaking into tears at his court hearing. The boy's father, still looking stunned as he apologized.
“I just want everyone to know that my kid made a mistake. It was a terrible mistake," the father, Jason Cochran, said outside the courthouse Thursday after his son's bail was set at $50,000.
Students at Armin Jahr Elementary School in the working-class Navy town not far from Seattle were back at school Friday, and local news outlets were full of stories about how one goes about keeping guns out of third-grade classrooms — an exercise that produced no answers.
“You're not going to put a metal detector in an elementary school,” Frank Hewins, who chairs a Washington state committee on school safety, told the Seattle Times.
The injured girl, Amina Kocer-Bowman, remains in critical condition but is expected to live, surgeon Eileen Bulger said at a news conference Thursday with the girl's father, Jason Bowman. She said the bullet penetrated the girl's right arm and abdomen before lodging near her spine. She faces multiple surgeries over the next few weeks.
“Anybody who has kids knows that you'd do anything to take away the pain she's feeling and put it on yourself,” Bowman told reporters.
Teacher Natalie Poss said in an interview with KING television that she heard “a loud bang” in the classroom Wednesday, and at first couldn't figure out what it was.
“I knew I didn't have any balloons in the room, loud sound, the kids were stirred. And then I saw Amina start to slump over. So, I knew something had happened, but it was very puzzling," she said.
Poss said she immediately ushered the other students out of the classroom and saw a “large hole” in Amina's side when she lifted up the girl's shirt. She applied pressure to the wound until paramedics arrived. Then as she and the principal searched the classroom, they found a gun under the flap of a student's backpack — resolving the “what happened” part of the incident.
The “why” part remained.
The gunshot was described as an accident. Students told police the "bang" happened when Cochran's son slammed his backpack down on his desk. Authorities have charged the boy with unlawful possession of a gun, bringing the weapon to school and third-degree assault. Later hearings will determine whether a child so young can actually be held criminally responsible in such a case.
Todd Dowell, senior deputy prosecutor for Kitsap County, told the Los Angeles Times that Washington state law requires a judge next to make a “capacity” determination in cases of crimes committed by juveniles between the ages of 8 and 12.
“Basically, did the kid know that the acts that constitute the offense were wrong? They don't necessarily need to know they were criminal acts, but did they know they were wrong?” he said.
Charging documents said the boy apparently got the weapon during a visitation at the home of his mother, with whom he is not living. Cochran and the boy's mother have troubled histories with the courts, and a relative has legal guardianship of the boy and his two siblings.
In an affidavit, prosecutors said the boy told a classmate about five days before Wednesday's incident that he was going to bring his “dad's gun to school and run away."
Family friends helped the Cochrans raise bail, and the boy has gone home.
“He has a lot of good in his heart,” Poss said in her TV interview. “I know he didn't intend this to happen.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-bremerton-boy-shooting-20120224,0,5790173.story
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From Google News
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Michigan
Churches to assist police
Houses of worship will serve as hubs for cops
by AMY BIOLCHINI
The Port Huron Police Department is looking to instigate change with a little help from the man upstairs.
Under its new community policing initiative, the department is signing up churches -- about 17 so far -- to serve as neighborhood hubs. The plan has divided the city into 23 zones, each with a designated team of officers.
Cpl. Lee Heighton said he's met with the pastors in Port Huron's South Side and attended some of their services -- and said for the first time in his 18-year law enforcement career, he feels a sense of empowerment knowing people are praying for him.
Not only does opening the relationship between the church and the police department make the officers more approachable to residents, it gives the officers a stronger sense of pride in their job, Heighton said.
"It's powerful to have this support of people behind you," Heighton said. "You can't leave those meetings without feeling good."
It's up to each officer to decide how they'll introduce themselves to the neighborhoods they serve, Heighton said.
The Rev. Tom Seppo, director of the religious organization Operation Transformation, is the liaison between the police department and local clergy.
Seppo met Thursday with Police Chief Michael Reaves, Officer Marcy Kuehn and Heighton to discuss what each side needs to contribute to move the program forward.
During the meeting, the key word was "synergy."
"They're ministers of peace, we're ministers of reconciliation," Seppo said, gesturing with his hands to intertwine his fingers.
By the end of the year, Reaves said he wants to double the number of neighborhood watch groups in the city and to have a church assigned in each zone.
For years, the police have been operating as a "reactive" agency -- but writing tickets doesn't solve many of the problems that plague the community, Reaves said.
When a senior citizen has to choose between buying food or prescription medication, Reaves said he wants to be able to place him or her in the hands of a caring church group, not a government agency.
Reaves said he hopes the pastors and parishioners will serve as mediators for blight and bickering problems in their neighborhoods.
Seppo said he envisions churches deploying volunteer teams to go door to door to meet the people in their neighborhoods and do prayer walks.
"Drug dealers aren't going to sling dope with a prayer walk right next to them on the street," Reaves said.
The chief said he's written a grant application to the Community Foundation of St. Clair County.
Much of the staff at Colonial Woods Missionary Church on Pine Grove Avenue in Port Huron already is familiar with Ernie Fantin, the officer assigned to Zone 3.
When Fantin needs to take a break from patrolling the streets to file reports, use the restroom or grab a cup of coffee, the Colonial Woods pastoral staff welcomes him inside with open arms -- even creating a basket with some of Fantin's favorite foods.
"We just want (Fantin) to know he's welcome," senior pastor Phil Whetstone said. "We like the idea of him being here."
Though Colonial Woods has a large congregation made up of people from many communities, Whetstone said its churchgoers will help people in the neighborhood who might not be able to take care of their homes for medical issues, creating blight issues.
"Our officers now communicate that to us, and (the church) can put together work teams," Whetstone said.
Reaves stressed the evolving nature of the community policing program.
As the plan progresses, Reaves hopes to sign on schools and businesses to be partners in keeping an eye out for crime and resolving recurring problems.
"We're 100% behind him," Whetstone said. "We're really excited about the opportunity."
http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20120225/NEWS01/202250308/Churches-assist-police
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