Editorial

A social media trend we don't 'like'

Employers cross a hard line when they demand that job applicants divulge their passwords for Facebook and other social media sites.

Be careful about the personal information and opinions you broadcast online, we are wisely and repeatedly told. Anyone from a prospective employer to an insurance company might be interested in details that you'll regret divulging someday.

But employers cross a bright, hard line when they demand, as some do, that job applicants divulge their passwords to Facebook and other social media sites, or have them log on so the interviewer can scrutinize their likes and dislikes, their relationships, their photos, their friends' personal information.

Of course, employers for years have scanned social media and other online sites for information about applicants, including the sometimes impolitic statements or opinions that Facebook users post in public forums or without creating privacy settings that keep their personal profiles privy only to their "friends." Those postings are fair game. Employers have the same right to peruse publicly available information as anyone else does. Now some are going further, looking into details of applicants' lives that they've divulged only to people they trust (even if those "friends" number 1,000 or more).

Although employers assert that their demand for passwords is perfectly legal, we have our doubts. Employers are not allowed to ask a wide range of personal questions about job applicants — their age, marital or family status, sexual orientation, religion and so forth — aspects of life that are commonly included in Facebook users' personal profiles, posts or uploaded photos. Not to mention that access to the applicant's list of friends allows them to view personal details on people who never gave their permission.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-facebook-passwords-legislation-20120328,0,1658910,print.story

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From Google News

Ohio

Oregon police bring back academy to train citizen volunteer officers

The Oregon Police Division is bringing back its Citizens' Police Academy in hopes of turning participants into volunteer teams to help officers during special events or natural disasters.

The academy, last offered in 2007, is scheduled for every Monday April 16 through June 25, except for Memorial Day, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the community room at the Oregon Municipal Building, 5330 Seaman Rd.

Registration is open to about 20 people, with the first applications received the first to be accepted. The course is free, but applicants must be at least 18 years old, pass background checks, and have valid driver's licenses.

Oregon residents are preferred, said Oregon police Sgt. Tony Castillo, to whom application may be made by calling 419-698-7180 or emailing tcastillo@oregonohio.org.

The academy will cover departmental operations including patrols, community-policing services, school-based policing, prevention, self defense, and a class at the firing range, Sergeant Castillo said.

http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2012/04/01/Oregon-police-bring-back-academy-to-train-citizen-volunteer-officers.html

Gearing Up for the Second Annual National Summit on Preventing Youth Violence

I am thrilled that the issue of youth violence prevention will receive the attention it deserves from federal and local officials who are working hard each day to make our communities safer. At the Summit, we will hear from Cabinet officials including Attorney General Holder, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. We will also hear from Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia, Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, and the Mayors of the six cities currently participating in the Forum: Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Salinas, and San Jose.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/03/30/gearing-second-annual-national-summit-preventing-youth-violence

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From the FBI

The Cyber Threat
Part 2: Shawn Henry on Partnerships, Challenges

Part 2 of an interview with Shawn Henry, executive assistant director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch.

Q: Why are partnerships so important?

Henry: The threat we face is not solely within the FBI's area of responsibility. So we work very closely with other law enforcement agencies and the intelligence community domestically. We share tactics and intelligence. We also partner with the private sector, because they often are the victims and see attacks before anybody else. The final piece—and one of the most significant—is international law enforcement partnerships. The ability to reach across the ocean once we identify criminals and put our hands on them is something that is relatively new. For many years, the adversaries believed they were immune to prosecution because they were thousands of miles away. That's not the case anymore. Through our partnerships we have arrested hundreds of bad actors who targeted U.S. and foreign infrastructure and institutions. Just in the last two years we have worked with dozens of countries, and we have actually stationed FBI agents overseas into the police agencies in countries including Ukraine, Romania, The Netherlands, and Estonia.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/march/cyber_033012/cyber_033012

American Scene: Federal criticism leads to Seattle police reforms

SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn on Thursday proposed a series of police reforms in response to a damning federal report that came after several high-profile incidents involving minorities.

Mr. McGinn and police Chief John Diaz said among the 20 initiatives to be implemented over 20 months were training for all officers on use of force standards, the development of protocol to make sure encounters don't escalate and steps to address biased policing.

"As mayor, I will be holding police leadership accountable to achieve these changes," Mr. McGinn said at a City Hall press conference.

In December, the U.S. Justice Department said inadequate supervision and training had led officers to grab weapons such as batons and flashlights too quickly, intensifying confrontations even when arresting people for minor offenses.

The department launched an investigation following the fatal shooting of a homeless Native American woodcarver and other reported uses of force against minorities.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/29/american-scene-federal-criticism-leads-to-seattle-/

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From Google News

Sex-Slavery Facilitators: Backpage's Sleazy ‘Adult Ads'

Village Voice Media has used its newspapers to aggressively push stories defending its lucrative ads, and to fire personal attacks at its critics.

Is it okay to run a business that facilitates sex slavery?

The answer seems obvious, yet Village Voice Media–the newspaper chain that also runs Backpage.com–apparently believes otherwise. Despite mountains of evidence that the company has helped facilitate American sex slavery–including that of children–VVM has carried on with its sleazy and inhumane business here, as well as in many other nations.

But the pressure is building. Some advertisers have already stopped doing business with VVM, and today, a coalition of multifaith religious leaders stepped up its calls for Backpage to take down the “adult services” section, which has been repeatedly connected to sex trafficking involving underage children, as well as adults.

Rallying in front of the Village Voice offices in New York City, Groundswell, the social action initiative of Auburn Theological Seminary, delivered to Voice a Change.com petition with nearly a quarter-million signatures supporting its call for VVM to “shut down the Adult section on Backpage and stop providing a means for others to sell girls and boys for sex.”

John Buffalo Mailer, the son of Voice cofounder Norman Mailer, joined the rally of about 100 people, and expressed dismay over the course Village Voice Media has pursued.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/30/sex-slavery-facilitators-backpage-s-sleazy-adult-ads.html

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Mar 29, 2012

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From Google News

New York police sued over patrols inside apartment buildings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A civil liberties group said on Wednesday it was suing the New York City Police Department for patrolling inside apartment buildings, saying residents are routinely stopped while simply going to check their mail.

Nearly every day police "unlawfully" stop and question residents of apartment buildings enrolled in a program called Operation Clean Halls, according to the lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union and a dozen tenants.

"If you live in one of the thousands of apartment buildings enrolled in Operation Clean Halls, you are a suspect for no other reason than where you live," Donna Lieberman, the NYCLU's executive director, said at a press conference.

"Taking out the garbage, checking the mail or, yes, even going out for a pack of Skittles, can result in you being detained, thrown against the wall for police questioning, and even arrested for trespassing if you so much as dare to leave your apartment without an ID, particularly if you're a young black or Latino man," she said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/29/us-newyork-police-searches-idUSBRE82S0AE20120329

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Surveillance video footage of George Zimmerman being led from a police car shortly after he fatally shot teenager Trayvon Martin does not appear to show any injuries or bloodstains, but his attorney says the video is too grainy to be revealing.

The footage, obtained by ABC News on Wednesday, shows a handcuffed Zimmerman getting out of the police car unaided and walking into the police station where he was taken after the shooting in Sanford, Fla.

It was taken about four hours after the deadly incident.

There are no visible signs of injuries to Zimmerman's head or blood on his clothes. However, he is wearing a red jacket, which could obscure blood stains.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/29/10915887-police-video-shows-george-zimmerman-shortly-after-trayvon-martin-shooting

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Mar 28, 2012

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From the L.A. Times

FBI documents reveal profiling of N. California Muslims

Reports obtained by the ACLU show agents gathered intelligence under the guise of outreach programs and shared it with other agencies. A legal expert calls the practice 'outrageous.'

SAN FRANCISCO —Federal agents routinely profiled Muslims in Northern California for at least four years, using community outreach efforts as a guise for compiling intelligence on local mosques, according to documents released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.

From 2004 to 2008, agents from the San Francisco office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation regularly attended meetings and services, particularly in the Silicon Valley area, "collected and illegally stored intelligence about American Muslims' First Amendment-protected beliefs and religious practices … and … disseminated it to other government agencies," the ACLU said in a written statement.

The ACLU of Northern California, the Asian Law Caucus and the San Francisco Bay Guardian filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 2010 and a lawsuit in 2011 after the groups received repeated complaints from the Muslim community about intrusive FBI activity, ACLU attorney Julia Harumi Mass said.

"The FBI's targeting of Muslim Americans for intelligence gathering was not connected to any evidence of criminality, but instead targeted an entire group based on religion," Mass said in an interview. The pattern of surveillance shown in the documents "is an affront to religious liberty and equal protection of the law."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fbi-california-mosques-20120328,0,5313232,print.story

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In California, justice for juveniles

Reform is needed, but it's too soon to do away with California's Division of Juvenile Justice.

Lawmakers created the California Youth Authority in 1941, making in the process a bold statement of purpose and conviction: Juvenile delinquents are redeemable. They should no longer be imprisoned with adults but instead given a chance at basic education and job training. Rehabilitation, not punishment, is the proper goal of an enlightened and effective juvenile justice system.

But by the late 1990s the California Youth Authority had become a network of grim and violent youth prisons that were so abusive and so destructive to their mission that all but a few were shut down. A majority of the 10,000 state wards returned to probation departments in their home counties; just over 1,000 remain in what is now the state prison system's Division of Juvenile Justice.

Gov. Jerry Brown wants to take one final step by eliminating the division and getting the state out of the juvenile justice business altogether. Brown no doubt likes the fact that the move would wipe millions of dollars from the state's books. Some youth advocates like the notion of forever closing the doors of what had become nightmarish institutions with no pretense of rehabilitation. County officials are divided, but many like the prospect of getting a chunk of the funding that would accompany the remaining state wards as they are returned to local probation camps.

They all have valid points — and they are all wrong. Just as we continue to need state prisons for violent and serious adult felons, California needs a Division of Juvenile Justice — smaller, to be sure, and more enlightened and more effective — to house, supervise and treat a reduced population of violent young offenders. There are only two other alternatives, and neither is acceptable: The state must not send its dangerous and damaged minors to probation departments that are not yet equipped to handle the most difficult cases; nor should it abandon them, along with any chance for their rehabilitation, to the adult penal system.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-juvenile-justice-california-20120327,0,1694604,print.story

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From the Washington Times

War surplus sought for U.S. security

2 lawmakers cite need at border with Mexico

Two Texas lawmakers, joined by 17 border sheriffs from Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, have asked Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta to authorize the shipment of surplus equipment being returned from the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan to the border with Mexico as a matter of “national security.”

Reps. Ted Poe , a Republican, and Henry Cuellar , a Democrat, said in a letter the massive drawdown of U.S. forces has resulted in the shipment of more than 1.5 million pieces of equipment out of Iraq over the past year and that nearly 900,000 items remain - all of which would be useful to federal, state and local law enforcement in their efforts to secure the border with Mexico .

The surplus equipment includes, among other combat gear, Humvees, weapons, communications trailers, observation platforms and night-vision goggles.

Mr. Poe also introduced a House resolution known as the Send Act that would direct the Defense Department to make 10 percent of certain equipment returning from Iraq available for use by law enforcement agencies that patrol the nation's southern border.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/27/war-surplus-sought-for-us-security/

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From Google News

Syrian authorities are detaining and torturing children, the United Nations' human rights chief, Navi Pillay said, according to a report.

"They've gone for the children -- for whatever purposes -- in large numbers," the BBC quoted her as saying . "Hundreds detained and tortured... it's just horrendous.

"Children shot in the knees, held together with adults in really inhumane conditions, denied medical treatment for their injuries, either held as hostages or as sources of information." Ms Pillay, a lawyer, said she believed that the UN Security Council had enough reliable information to warrant referring Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"I feel that investigation and prosecution is a crucial element to deter and call a stop to these violations," she told the BBC.

Ms Pillay said she believed that the UN Security Council had enough reliable information to warrant referring Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/28/10899674-report-syria-is-torturing-children-un-human-rights-chief-says

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Michigan militia members cleared of conspiracy

DETROIT (AP) - A federal judge on Tuesday gutted the government's case against seven members of a Michigan militia, dismissing the most serious charges in an extraordinary defeat for federal authorities who insisted they had captured homegrown rural extremists poised for war.

U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said the members' expressed hatred of law enforcement didn't amount to a conspiracy to rebel against the government. The FBI had secretly planted an informant and an FBI agent inside the Hutaree militia starting in 2008 to collect hours of anti-government audio and video that became the cornerstone of the case.

"The court is aware that protected speech and mere words can be sufficient to show a conspiracy. In this case, however, they do not rise to that level," the judge said on the second anniversary of raids and arrests that broke up the group.

Roberts granted requests for acquittal on the most serious charges: conspiring to commit sedition, or rebellion, against the U.S. and conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. Other weapons crimes tied to the alleged conspiracies also were dismissed.

"The judge had a lot of guts," defense attorney William Swor said. "It would have been very easy to say, `The heck with it,' and hand it off to the jury. But the fact is she looked at the evidence, and she looked at it very carefully."

http://wtop.com/?nid=209&sid=2617029

Shawn Henry realized a lifelong dream when he became a special agent in 1989. Since that time he has traveled the world for investigations and become one of the FBI's most senior executives and its top official on cyber crime. FBI.gov recently sat down with Henry—who is about to retire from the Bureau—to talk about the cyber threat and his FBI career.

Q: You were involved with cyber investigations long before the public had an awareness of how serious the threat is. How did you become interested in the cyber realm?

Henry: I was always interested in technology, and in the late 1990s I started to take courses at the FBI related to cyber intrusion investigations. When I had an opportunity to move over to that side of the house, I seized it. I saw right away that the challenges we were going to face in the future were tremendous, and I wanted to be on the front lines of that.

Q: How has the cyber threat changed over time?

Henry: Early on, cyber intrusions such as website defacements and denial of service attacks were generally perceived to be pranks by teenagers. But even then, in the late 1990s, there were state actors sponsored by governments who were attacking networks. What received media attention was the teenage hacker and the defacements, but there were more significant types of attacks and a more substantial threat that was in the background. Also, those early attacks were much more intermittent. Now we are seeing literally thousands of attacks a day. The ones people hear about are often because victims are coming forward. And there are more substantial attacks that people don't ever see or hear about.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/march/shawn-henry_032712/shawn-henry_032712

On suspension from school

SANFORD, Fla. — Trayvon Martin had been suspended from school for having marijuana when the unarmed teenager was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer, a family spokesman said Monday.

Trayvon, 17, was suspended by Miami-Dade County schools because traces of marijuana were found in a plastic baggie in his book bag, family spokesman Ryan Julison said. Florida media also reported Monday that a marijuana pipe was found in the bag.

Trayvon was shot Feb. 26 by George Zimmerman while he was visiting Sanford with his father.

Also Monday, the Orlando Sentinel reported that it was actually Trayvon who attacked Mr. Zimmerman on the fatal night, as the gunman, who has become the object of national outrage, began to get out his side of the story.

“George Zimmerman suffered a broken nose, and had an injury to the back of his head; he was attacked by Trayvon Martin on that evening,” Craig Sonner, Mr. Zimmerman 's attorney, told ABC News. “This was a case of self-defense.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/26/police-report-trayvon-jumped-watch-shooter/?page=all#pagebreak

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From Google News

Wisconsin shooting recalls Trayvon Martin death

MILWAUKEE — The decision by authorities not to charge a homeowner who shot dead an unarmed black man in a small Wisconsin town three weeks ago has resulted in comparisons to the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida and drawn scrutiny to the state's new "castle doctrine" law, a derivative of the "stand your ground" laws.

Authorities ruled that Adam Kind, a homeowner from Slinger, Wisc. was justified in shooting Bo Morrison, 20, a black man. This is possibly the first such case under the expanded doctrine which was enacted late last year, prosecutors said.

The law allows homeowners facing imminent danger to their lives to protect themselves using deadly force if necessary.

About 150 people protested Sunday at the courthouse in nearby West Bend, Wisconsin. A rally also was planned for Tuesday in Madison for Morrison and Martin, 17, who was shot dead by a self-proclaimed neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida. The volunteer has claimed self-defense and has not been charged in that case.

"Under a reasonable view of the evidence the homeowner acted reasonably in his use of force based on the facts and circumstances," county District Attorney Mark Bensen said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46863258/ns/us_news/#

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Mar 26, 2012

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From the L.A. Daily News

U.S. could bring hate-crime charge in Florida neighborhood-watch killing of teen

So far, only one such clue has surfaced publicly against 28-year-old George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who fatally shot the 17-year-old Martin on Feb. 26 in the central Florida town of Sanford. On one of his 911 calls to police that night, Zimmerman muttered something under his breath that some listeners say sounds like a racial slur. Zimmerman's father is white, and his mother is Hispanic.

"It sounds pretty obvious to me," said Donald Tibbs, a Drexel University law professor who has closely studied race, civil rights and criminal procedure. "If that was a racial epithet that preceded the attack on Trayvon Martin, we definitely have a hate crime."

Others, however, say the recording is not clear enough to determine what Zimmerman actually said. And many experts say more evidence would be needed that he harbored racial prejudice against black people and went after Martin for that reason alone. There had previously been burglaries in the complex committed by young black males, possibly heightening Zimmerman's suspicions when he spotted Martin.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_20250646/u-s-could-bring-hate-crime-charge-florida

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Column: Trayvon Martin, my son, and the Black Male Code

We were in the car on the way to school when a story about Martin came on the radio. "The guy who killed him should get arrested. The dead guy was unarmed!" my son said after hearing that neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman had claimed self-defense in the shooting in Sanford, Fla.

We listened to the rest of the story, describing how Zimmerman had spotted Martin, who was 17, walking home from the store on a rainy night, the hood of his sweatshirt pulled over his head. When it was over, I turned off the radio and told my son about the rules he needs to follow to avoid becoming another Trayvon Martin -- a black male who Zimmerman assumed was "suspicious" and "up to no good."

As I explained it, the Code goes like this:

Always pay close attention to your surroundings, son, especially if you are in an affluent neighborhood where black folks are few. Understand that even though you are not a criminal, some people might assume you are, especially if you are wearing certain clothes.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_20253168/trayvon-martin-my-son-and-black-male-code

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From Google News

To better connect to community, KC police now on Pinterest

The department has extended its reach to the photo-driven site to connect to community.

The long arm of the law — at least in Kansas City — is extending its reach on the Internet. The Kansas City Police Department, which thinks it may be the first law enforcement agency in the country to do so, recently joined the burgeoning social media site Pinterest.

The photo-driven site, which describes itself as a “digital inspiration board,” has more than 20 million users and is growing fast. And the vast majority of Pinterest users are women, according to online marketing research.

“This reaches a larger group that may not have been engaged in our other social media efforts,” said department spokesman Captain Steve Young.

Those previous efforts have included the police chief's blog, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. “We think it's a way to build partnerships and connect with the community in a way we never could before,” said Sarah Boyd of the department's media relations unit.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/03/22/v-print/3513441/to-better-connect-to-community.html

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