From U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Do you know where Veterans Day comes from?

Amid Halloween, Daylight Saving time, elections and Thanksgiving, Veterans Day can sometimes fall to the wayside.

This year, it'll be celebrated Sunday, Nov. 11 – but where did Veterans Day originate?

World War I officially ended in June 1919 when the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Fighting ground to a halt seven months earlier, in November 1918, when an armistice (a temporary cessation of hostilities) between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Nov. 11, 1918 became known as the end of “the war to end all wars.”

A year later, in November 1919, President Woodrow Wilson declared Nov. 11 the first commemoration of Armistice Day, intended to be celebrated with parades, public meetings and a brief suspension of business at 11 a.m.

http://www.myrecordjournal.com/plainvillecitizen/article_0234e294-28f5-11e2-890a-0019bb2963f4.html

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Nov 10, 2012

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Occupy Sandy: One-time protesters find new cause

NEW YORK (AP) — You might be surprised at what has become a lauded and effective relief organization for victims of Superstorm Sandy: Occupy Wall Street.

The social media savvy that helped Occupy protesters create a grass-roots global movement last year — one that ultimately collapsed under its leaderless format — is proving a strength as members fan out across New York to deliver aid including hot meals, medicine and blankets.

They're the ones who took food and water to Glenn Nisall, a 53-year-old resident of Queens' hard-hit and isolated Rockaway section who lost power and lives alone, with no family nearby.

"I said: 'Occupy? You mean Occupy Wall Street?'" he said. "I said: 'Awesome, man. I'm one of the 99 percent, you know?'"

Occupy Wall Street was born in late 2011 in a lower Manhattan plaza called Zuccotti Park, with a handful of protesters pitching tents and vowing to stay put until world leaders offered a fair share to the "99 percent" who don't control the globe's wealth.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/10/occupy-sandy-new-york/1696323/

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Cyber Crime: That's Entertainment!

A few years ago, a woman named Teresa, from Harlan, KY, decided to get online and pose as an autistic man/adult survivor of sexual child abuse who was also dying of leukemia. She used a false name, never revealed her face and when she took her online relationships to the phone, she had a masculine enough sounding voice to back up the male persona. Under the guise of this fraudulent identity, she was able to manipulate the heartstrings of those who believed she was a man by pretending to be in agonizing pain due to the terminal disease she claimed to have. So convincing was her act that it was enough to persuade people to give her money. Her "dying man" routine lasted many years, and many people fell for it.

I was one of those people -- along with several of my friends. We lost money, time and trust and we all felt like fools. We were devastated when we found out the truth. I wrote about it in my article, "Perfect Stranger". With much anger in my heart, I warned people about the dangers of online friendship and romance, of succumbing to false personalities -- I urged people to question the characters they met on the Internet, especially the ones whose stories seemed sketchy or questionable. I also advised them to report anything that they suspected to the FBI , as I did in the case of Teresa.

Writing about what one feels and experiences in life in a personal blog is one thing, but when you're a fairly well-read blogger for The Huffington Post, what you write has the potential of reaching a mind-boggling amount of viewers -- many of whom are television producers looking for ratings-worthy topics, like -- "What it's like to be find out that your dying, male, online friend is really a woman who looks very much like Honey Boo Boo's mom ."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dori-hartley/cyber-crime_b_2088287.html

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Editorial

Two states legalize recreational use of marijuana.

North to Alaska -- A Domestic Terrorist With a Deadly Plan

By the time he moved to Alaska in 2006, Paul Rockwood, Jr. was an ardent follower of the American-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who he met at a Virginia mosque in late 2001.

Shortly after he settled with his family in the small fishing village of King Salmon to work for the National Weather Service, our agents in Anchorage were aware that Rockwood had begun compiling a list of targets in the U.S. military he might assassinate in the name of jihad.

“If you were wearing a U.S. military uniform,” said Special Agent Doug Klein, who worked the case from Anchorage, “as far as Rockwood was concerned, you were a target.”

A military veteran himself, Rockwood believed it was his religious duty to kill those who desecrated Islam. In 2009, he began sharing his deadly plans with an individual he thought held similar views. But that person was actually an undercover operative employed by our Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in Anchorage.

For a time, JTTF personnel wondered how determined Rockwood was about his plans. “But one day when he was with our undercover in Anchorage he identified the building of a cleared defense contractor and said, ‘This is the kind of building I want to blow up,' ” Klein said. “That's when we knew he was a serious threat.”

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/november/in-alaska-a-domestic-terrorist-with-a-deadly-plan/in-alaska-a-domestic-terrorist-with-a-deadly-plan

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Nov 9, 2012

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Iran says ready for 'any threat' after reportedly attacking US drone

Tehran has not confirmed the Pentagon's claim that Iran shot at an unarmed US drone, but has hinted a drone was within its airspace. Last year, Iran brought down a CIA stealth drone operating deep inside the country.

Iranian commanders said they are ready for "any threat" to Iran 's borders, just days after Iranian military jets shot at an unmanned American drone conducting clandestine surveillance off Iran's southwest coast.

An Iranian general today did not deny the Pentagon claims. He appeared to hint that the US drone was in fact over Iranian waters – less than 12 nautical miles from the coastline – and that Iran would take on any intruder.

“If any aircraft seeks to enter our country's airspace, our armed forces will confront it,” said deputy chairman of the Iran Chiefs of Staff Brig. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, according to official Iranian media. Iran would “firmly” respond to any ground, sea, or air "invasion.”

The near-clash comes at a moment of heightened tension and expectations between Iran, the US, Israel , and Western powers. Secret US-Iran meetings have reportedly preceded a resumption of talks later this month about Iran's controversial nuclear program; the US is imposing more sanctions, and Iran has been the target of a lethal covert war.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2012/1109/Iran-says-ready-for-any-threat-after-reportedly-attacking-US-drone

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New citizen boards aim to improve NOPD's relationship with community

As the New Orleans Police Department undergoes sweeping reforms mandated by a federal consent decree , 56 citizen volunteers have been selected to aid in opening the lines of communication between the eight NOPD districts and the city's residents, Mayor Mitch Landrieu 's office announced Thursday.

Each district will have its own Police Community Advisory Board, comprised of seven volunteers.

The volunteers will be trained by the U.S. Department of Justice on how to conduct community meetings, submit recommendations or complaints to the NOPD and implement "action plans," a news release said. The volunteers' first day of orientation was Thursday.

The advisory boards will meet at least once per quarter in an effort to help hold the NOPD accountable, especially regarding issues of crime, bias-based policing and police-community interaction. The boards will also address "quality of life" issues, such as blight and broken streetlights.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/11/new_citizen_boards_aim_to_help.html

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Burlington Police win international recognition

"It's a win-win," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont. "It keeps the community safer. It helps the people who need the help and it makes that case that we can go out and go after real criminal matters."

"I've seen data and this is the best program I've seen across the state of Vermont that can actually demonstrate the results, the payback on the investment," Vt. Mental Health Commissioner Patrick Flood said.

The Vt. Department of Mental Health plans to give the program an additional $40,000. Outreach workers say the extra money will allow them to expand coverage to seven days a week.

http://www.wcax.com/story/20047761/burlington-police-win-international-recognition

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Nov 8, 2012

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Arizona

Jared Loughner to be sentenced for Tucson rampage

TUCSON, Ariz. The man who pleaded guilty in the Arizona shooting rampage will be sentenced Thursday for the attack that left six people dead and wounded former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others.

The sentencing hearing will mark the first time that victims will confront Jared Lee Loughner in court about the January 2011 shooting at a Giffords political event outside a grocery store in Tucson, Ariz.

Prosecutors say an unspecified number of victims will comment before U.S. District Judge Larry Burns sentences Loughner, though it's unknown whether Giffords or her husband plan to attend or have a statement read on their behalf. Three shooting victims have told The Associated Press that they intend to comment at the hearing.

The 24-year-old had pleaded guilty three months ago to 19 federal charges under an agreement that guarantees he will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. The deal calls for the dismissal of 30 other charges and a sentence of seven consecutive life terms, followed by 140 years in prison.

Both sides reached the deal after a judge declared that Loughner was able to understand the charges against him. After the shooting, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and underwent forcible psychotropic drug treatments.

Woman Forced to Wear ‘Idiot' Sign as Punishment for Driving on Sidewalk

And as Cleveland resident Shena Hardin discovered this week, today's justice system is not above embarrassing wrongdoers.

Hardin, 32, was caught on a cell phone video driving on a sidewalk to avoid waiting for a school bus last month. After witnessing Hardin bypass his vehicle repeatedly, the bus driver contacted authorities before his route one day and recorded the crime, CBS affiliate WOIO reported. The footage, posted on YouTube , shows police pulling the offender over immediately following her stint on the walkway.

The Associated Press reported Hardin appeared on Monday at Cleveland Municipal Court, where a judge decided that she must wear a sign bearing the message, “Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus” while standing at the intersection of East 38th Street and Payne Avenue . The punishment will occur between 7:45 and 8:45 a.m. on Nov. 13 and 14. In addition, Hardin's license was suspended for 30 days, and she had to pay $250 in court fees.

Punishment through public humiliation is nothing new. Throughout history, punishers have turned individuals into public spectacles thanks to devices such as scold's bridles — a forehead-enclosing iron instrument with a metal gag used to torture nagging wives and gossipy women in Europe during the 1600s — and dunce caps. And this isn't the first time this year a judge has employed sign-shaming to penalize lawbreakers. NBC affiliate KSDK reported an Indiana judge forced a man who skipped jury duty to hold a sign with the message, “I failed to appear for jury duty” outside the Crown Point courthouse for two days in January. In 2009, two Bedford, Penn. women who stole a child's gift card on her birthday were compelled to display signs that said, “I stole from a 9-year-old on her birthday! Don't steal or this could happen to you!” outside of Bedford County Courthouse as part of their plea agreement.

The Sikh community is the fifth-largest religion in the world, with 25 million Sikhs worldwide and half a million in the United States

Last week on PoliceOne, we saw an amazing interview with Oak Creek Police Lt. Brian Murphy, who you will recall was shot a dozen times by an assailant who had attacked the local Sikh temple. In that interview Lt. Murphy was clearly grateful for the kindness and support he'd received from the Sikhs in that Wisconsin community.

It just so happens that I recently had an opportunity to sit in on a cultural awareness training session with some Sikh community leaders and Arab American activists with a goal to enlighten the attendees with knowledge of their culture, customs, and traditions.

I have to admit, as I first sat down in the class, I felt I had a lot of experience and knowledge of these cultures since our city has such a large population of them. I worked most of my career working a patrol sector with a heavy concentration of Arab and Sikh Americans (the 2000 census stated “among places with 100,000 or more population, the highest proportion of Arabs lived in Sterling Heights, Mich.”).

http://www.policeone.com/community-policing/articles/6030269-Sikh-relations-What-police-officers-should-know/

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Illinois

Citizens' class bridges gap between WPD and community

Sue Ringenberger of Washington aimed down the barrel of an AR-15 and fired at her target.

Editor's note: Marlo Guetersloh is attending the Citizens Police Academy this fall. This is the first of a multi-part series on the program.

Sue Ringenberger of Washington aimed down the barrel of an AR-15 and fired at her target.

“That was a good grouping on your rounds for that one,” a range instructor told her a few minutes later as the two worked to pull down her target from its stand at a police gun range near Metamora.

For Ringenberger, an insurance company employee, this was the first time she fired an assault rifle. In fact, it was the first time she fired a gun.

“The kick-back is more than I expected,” Ringenberger said. “What was interesting to me was knowing these officers have to use these weapons swiftly and they have to make incredibly fast judgements on using these weapons.”

Ringenberger's new understanding of how police do their work is the primary goal of the Washington Police Department's Citizens Police Academy program.

http://www.chillicothetimesbulletin.com/article/20121107/NEWS/121109706

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California

Advisory forum for airing Glendale police concerns, issues is disbanded

The Glendale Police Advisory Council, a forum for residents to bring their concerns, has disbanded, with officials citing sparse attendance.

The council's last scheduled meeting in August was canceled, but officials said they were mostly ill-attended or were frequented solely by City Hall gadflies.

“Unfortunately, many people seem to fear speaking to the police,” Sharon Weisman — a member of the larger Community-Police Partnership Advisory Committee — said in an email Tuesday.

She and her colleagues voted unanimously in September to dissolve the advisory group, which was created in 2008 by former Police Chief Randy Adams as a venue for residents to bring complaints and make inquiries.

But since the group's inception, no significant complaints have been reported, said Glendale Police Chief Ron De Pompa said.

At some points, he said attendance was “nonexistent” and demonstrated a lack of need for the group.

http://www.glendalenewspress.com/news/tn-gnp-1107-advisory-forum-for-airing-glendale-police-concerns-issues-is-disbanded,0,909859.story

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Nov 7, 2012

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Policing Gender, Arresting Sex

While marriage equality and criminal justice reform proposals pepper ballots across the country, a new investigative piece in The Chicago Reporter illustrates what community groups and academics have long observed, that anti-prostitution laws cause tremendous harm to people engaged in the sex trade, especially those who are LGBT. The article notes that transgender women are particularly likely to be booked on felony prostitution charges on a second or subsequent prostitution offense under legislation that advocates argued would increase penalties to clients, not sex workers. What's more, in what seems to be a flagrant violation of Chicago anti-discrimination law, police officers arrest transgender women (overwhelmingly women of color) for prostitution, classify them as male and, in a disturbing twist of logic, post their mugshots online as part of an effort to "shame" men for attempting to buy sex.

The practice of publishing mugshots of those arrested for seeking commercial sex is not unique to Chicago, but it is one of the few jurisdictions where the practice has been studied. Data crunching by the Social Science Research Center at DePaul University revealed that at least 10 percent of mugshots posted online by the Chicago Police Department were likely transgender women, 92 percent of whom were African-American. When law enforcement is tasked with identifying buyers and sellers, police become the arbiters of gender, nullifying the work being done to allow people to self-determine their gender identity and expression. LGBT advocacy groups should be outraged by this systematic mistreatment of transgender communities.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/darby-hickey/policing-gender-arresting-sex_b_2065863.html

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Nov 6, 2012

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California

Viral sensations seen as community policing for SFPD

The community is acting as 'Big Brother' using camera phones, social media

SAN FRANCISCO — Viral photos and videos are being hailed as a useful tool in catching suspects in the wake of violence that erupted in the wake of the San Francisco Giants' World Series celebrations.

The suspect who smashed a Muni bus windshield using a police barrier in downtown San Francisco was arrested two days after the incident, thanks to photos and video taken that instantly went viral.

"His photo went all over the world," said Susan Giffin, a civilian employee who manages the computer crime data warehouse for the SFPD.

"There was a post in the United Kingdom that said, 'If this is what Americans do when they win, what do they do when they lose?' Giffin told SFGate.

It's instances like this that have turned the privacy debate upside down. The notion to place police surveillance cameras at high-crime locations in the city was turned down seven years ago but, according to the article, cell phone cameras have essentially filled that void.

http://www.policeone.com/community-policing/articles/6028763-Viral-sensations-seen-as-community-policing-for-SFPD/

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From ICE

ICE arrests 40 during 3-day operation targeting criminal aliens and immigration fugitives in Indianapolis area

INDIANAPOLIS – As part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) ongoing commitment to prioritizing the removal of criminal aliens and egregious immigration law violators, 40 convicted criminal aliens, immigration fugitives and immigration violators were arrested during a three-day operation in the greater Indianapolis area.

This operation concluded Sunday and was conducted by ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations teams in Indianapolis.

Of the 40 arrested, 25 had prior convictions for crimes such as: assault, domestic battery, drunken driving, and drugs. Thirteen of the 40 were immigration fugitives who had been previously ordered to leave the country but failed to depart; the majority of these also had criminal convictions. Four of those arrested had been previously removed from the country and illegally re-entered the United States, which is a felony.

Following is the nationality breakdown of the 37 men and three women arrested: Mexico (33), El Salvador (2), Cuba (1), Guatemala (1), Honduras (1), India (1), and Peru (1). The majority of the arrests (34), occurred in Indianapolis. Additional arrests were made in the following Indiana communities: Brownsburg, Camby and Westfield.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1211/121105indianapolis.htm

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From the FBI

Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy Raises Potential for Disaster Fraud

In the wake of natural disasters, many people want to contribute to victim assistance programs and organizations across the country&mdashhowever, there is always a potential for disaster relief fraud in these situations. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) are asking the public to apply a critical eye and do due diligence before giving to anyone soliciting donations on behalf of hurricane victims. Solicitations can originate as e-mails, websites, door-to-door collections, mailings, telephone calls, and other similar methods.

Suspected fraudulent activity pertaining to relief efforts associated with Hurricane Sandy should be reported to the toll-free NCDF hotline at 866-720-5721. The hotline is staffed by a live operator 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the purpose of reporting suspected scams being perpetrated by criminals in the aftermath of disasters.

For more information, including tips to avoid being victimized before making a donation of any kind, read the press release issued by the Department of Justice.

Frauds from A to Z

http://www.fbi.gov/news/news_blog/aftermath-of-hurricane-sandy-raises-potential-for-disaster-fraud

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Nov 5, 2012

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Florida

City Crime Rate Falls

BRADENTON -- The crime rate in the City of Bradenton continues to fall. A report released today by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement shows a 7.7-percent decrease in Part One Offenses in the City limits from January through June compared to the same time period in 2011. “Part One Offenses” is the category of the crimes of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.

But the trend is nothing new in the City of Bradenton. With the exception of a slight uptick in these crimes in 2011, crime has fallen each year starting in 2004 when the City experienced a 7.4-percent decrease in crime. In 2005, Bradenton experienced a 9.9-percent decrease in crime – one of the most significant drops in crime in decades. It nearly repeated that just a few years later when crime dropped 9.8 percent in 2010.

Mayor Wayne Poston, who also is the City's Police Commissioner, said the police department's style of “community policing” helped forge a relationship between the neighborhoods and their beat officers, and that resulted in reduced crime – and more arrests.

“The City of Bradenton's community policing initiative was creative, innovative and reduced crime at a time when crime was increasing in other cities and counties in Florida,” Mayor Poston said. “We coupled that initiative with keeping the same officers in the same zones every shift they worked. Citizens became familiar with the officers. A trust was built between citizens and police, and the chemistry from neighborhood trust across the City resulted in fewer crimes and more crimes solved and more successfully prosecuted.”

Trends show Baldwin Park is not alone in considering disbanding police, hiring Sheriff's services

Among them is Baldwin Park, whose councilmembers are in the process of determining if they'll swap their city-run police department for a contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

There's been a big uptick in this strategy in recent years as cities look for ways to continue trimming budgets, said Sam Olivito, executive director of the California Contract Cities Association.

"There's cities all over the map that are looking at different ways to provide services on a more economical basis," Olivito said. "There are no longer terms that people like to hold on to like a `full service city' or `independent city."'

While advocates say contracting public safety services is the answer for financially burdened cities, others argue that local police have deep ties to the community that can't be replaced.

http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_21928805/trends-show-baldwin-park-is-not-alone-considering

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