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July 21, 2013

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California

First Unsolved Homicide Summit held in Monterey Park

Though it cannot undo the damage done by a murder, the arrest and conviction of a killer can bring a family some answers and a sense of justice. But the thousands of Los Angeles County families of homicide victims whose slayings remain unsolved are left to deal with unanswered questions and the knowledge that their family member's killer is at-large.

To provide information and support to those families still waiting on justice for their slain loved ones, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials partnered with other law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and victim advocacy groups Saturday to host their first-ever Unsolved Homicide Summit at the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau in Monterey Park.

"We are here out of a sense of love for you," Sheriff' Lee Baca told the dozens of families assembled at the meeting. Some had cases which had been solved, but many were still waiting for the day they will learn their family member's killer has been captured.

"How you feel matters," he said. "How you suffer matters."

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_23700818/first-unsolved-homicide-summit-held-monterey-park

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3 bodies found in northeast Ohio city

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) — Three bodies have been found wrapped in plastic bags in a Cleveland suburb and police will continue a search for possibly more victims Sunday, East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said.

The bodies were found about 100 to 200 yards apart and a 35-year-old man was arrested and is a suspect in all three deaths, although he has not yet been charged, Norton said late Saturday.

The suspect is a registered sex offender and has served prison time, the mayor said. In police interviews, the man led them to believe he might have been influenced by convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell, Norton said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"He said some things that led us to believe that in some way, shape, or form, Sowell might be an influence," the mayor said.

Sowell was found guilty in 2011 of killing 11 women and hiding their remains around his Cleveland home. He was sentenced to death and is in an Ohio prison.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/21/3-bodies-ohio-city/2572291/

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Texas

Community policing curbs crime in West Side neighborhood

Crime is down in the community near West End Park, Police Chief William McManus said Saturday during West End Hope in Action Beautification Day, noting that most crimes from murder to burglary have seen a drop.

The Police Department statistics apply to an area bordered by West Martin Street, Culebra Road, Northwest 24th Street and North Colorado Street and compare crimes recorded between Jan. 1 and June 30 in 2012 and 2013.

“Our crime overall is down significantly,” McManus said at the event. “We should be very, very proud of ourselves. ... We are an example for other neighborhoods in the city.”

McManus said the emphasis on public safety in the neighborhood started about a year ago, when the co-chairman of West End Hope in Action, Carlos Gonzalez, invited him to walk through the neighborhood and discuss problem areas involving crime. The group was started to combat prostitution and drug-dealing in the area and to help residents access health care, Gonzalez said.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Community-policing-curbs-crime-in-West-Side-4676864.php

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Indiana

South Bend police reaching out

Program aims to build trust, community relations

SOUTH BEND -- It's another day in the city as officers from the South Bend Police Department HUD Patrols begin their normal routine patrolling the streets. But on this summer day, Officer Derek Dieter is working a very different beat.

Having traded his regular uniform for one that includes a white shirt with black shorts, he stands at his cruiser now dubbed the “policemobile” as children from a west-side neighborhood stand around him looking in the car and picking out books.

“Can I please have another book report sheet?” asked Marcus Northern, 8. “I finished my book, and now I want to write my report for you.”

According to Dieter, what he's doing is not exactly revolutionary. For years, police departments have been trying with varying success to reach out to residents with community policing, trying to get acquainted with people in the neighborhood.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/community/article_8841a886-f1f4-11e2-9240-001a4bcf6878.html

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Maryland

'Safest place' designation questioned by alderwoman

Frederick's officials should be cautious when touting how safe the city is, Alderwoman Karen Young said at a workshop last week.

She commented on a recent article in The Frederick News-Post about how the Frederick-Gaithersburg-Bethesda area moved from fifth to first place on the list of secure places to live among metropolitan areas with a population of 500,000 or more, according to Farmers Insurance Group.

Particularly serious crimes, also called part one crimes, increased in the city by 8.7 percent from 2011 to 2012, Young pointed out.

“I'm concerned about communicating a certain sense of performance when, in fact, we have some challenges as well as some potential staffing issues,” Young said.

The city has one of the highest volumes of calls per officer in the region, Young said.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/police/article_7bffbb77-10e9-591a-810f-be0544bb101e.html

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July 20, 2013

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Obama says Trayvon Martin 'could have been me' years ago

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a rare and public reflection on race, President Barack Obama called on the nation Friday to do some soul searching over the death of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his shooter, saying the slain black teenager "could have been me 35 years ago." Empathizing with the pain of many black Americans, Obama said the case conjured up a hard history of racial injustice "that doesn't go away."

Obama's personal comments, in a surprise appearance in the White House press room, marked his most extensive discussion of race as president. For Obama, who has written about his own struggles with racial identity but often has shied away from the subject in office, the speech signaled an unusual embrace of his standing as the nation's first black president and the longing of many African-Americans for him to give voice to their experiences.

"When you think about why, in the African- American community at least, there's a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it's important to recognize that the African- American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away," Obama said during his 20-minute remarks.

A Florida jury last week acquitted George Zimmerman of all charges in the February 2012 shooting of Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old. The verdict was cheered by those who agreed that Zimmerman was acting in self-defense, while others protested the outcome, believing Zimmerman had targeted Martin because he was black.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/?source=SubNav_News_BN

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California

L.A. County sheriff making progress on jail reforms

The Sheriff's Department has implemented almost two-thirds of the reforms sought by a blue ribbon commission to stamp out excessive use of force in its jails but says millions of additional dollars are needed to implement the rest, according to an independent monitor.

Richard Drooyan said the department has implemented 37 of 60 recommendations made by the Citizens' Commission on Jail Violence 10 months ago, including hiring an assistant sheriff to manage the jails, drafting new policies governing the use of force, and rotating staff more frequently to prevent deputies from forming "cliques" or what the ACLU calls "savage gangs."

"The remaining recommendations that do not require funding should be completed by the end of the year, if not sooner," he added in a report to be formally submitted Tuesday to the county Board of Supervisors.

Although 15 of the remaining 23 recommendations require additional funding to be fully realized, department spokesman Steve Whitmore said Sheriff Lee Baca is satisfied with the pace of reforms.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_23696671/jail-reforms-underway

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Secret court renews NSA phone surveillance

WASHINGTON — A secret court on Friday extended the National Security Agency's authority to collect and store the phone records of tens of millions of American cellphone customers, the top U.S. intelligence official confirmed.

The decision by the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court amounted to a routine renewal of the legal framework for one of the government's most sensitive and controversial data-collection programs. But it was the first time U.S. officials have publicly acknowledged the step.

The existence of the top-secret collection effort was one of the key revelations in a series of leaks last month by Edward Snowden, the former NSA technical contractor who exposed new details of the spy agency's surveillance programs.

Snowden provided newspapers with documents describing the NSA's systematic efforts to collect "metadata" from cellphone records, including phone numbers and information about the time and length of phone calls. Among the documents was an April court order by a FISA judge ordering a Verizon subsidiary to provide the NSA with data on all telephone calls by its customers.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_23696113/secret-court-renews-nsa-phone-surveillance

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Texas

Elderly men held for years in 'dungeon' at Houston home

Four men, apparently invalids, were being held for years while residents of the house stole their Social Security or veterans checks.

Police answering a 911 call at a home in North Houston Friday discovered four elderly men being held in a "dungeon" garage for as long as 10 years while residents allegedly confiscated their Social Security or veterans checks, according to local media reports.

KTRK-TV quoted police as saying at least one of the four -- ages 79, 54, 74 and about 65 --had been held against his will for 10 years.

Three men found Friday morning were unable to walk and were taken to a Houston hospital, KTRK reports. They appeared to be suffering from malnutrition.

"One of them seemed to think he was picked up off the street and brought here," said Police Sgt. JW McCoy, according to KTRK, the local ABC affiliate. "In exchange for beer and cigarettes and a place to stay, he had to turn over his Social Security check."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/19/houston-elderly-men-held-dungeon-house/2569295/

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DNA match links confessed Boston Strangler to last slaying in the spree

A DNA match has been made from the remains of Albert DeSalvo, the confessed Boston Strangler, to crime scene evidence from a 1964 slaying that was part of the Strangler's murder spree, authorities announced today. The discovery sheds new light on the dark, decades-old mystery of a killer who preyed on women in Boston in the 1960s.

DeSalvo admitted to 11 murders that transfixed and terrified the city. But he was never convicted of them. And his confessions to murdering the women from 1962 to 1964 had long been questioned because of inconsistencies in his story.

DeSalvo's remains were unearthed from a Peabody cemetery last week in an effort to help resolve the lingering doubts. Investigators were looking to see if DNA from his body matched evidence collected in the slaying of Mary Sullivan on Beacon Hill, who was apparently the Strangler's last victim. The test results were finalized this morning.

“I hope this brings some measure of finality to Mary Sullivan's family,” Attorney General Martha Coakley said in a joint statement with the Suffolk district attorney and Boston police. “This leaves no doubt that Albert DeSalvo was responsible for the brutal murder of Mary Sullivan, and most likely that he was responsible for the horrific murders of the other women he confessed to killing.”

http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/07/19/dna-match-links-confessed-boston-strangler-last-slaying-the-spree/yoOMaH3ecUJrGv5YPYHvtK/story.html

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TSA to expand speedier screening — for a fee

The Transportation Security Administration plans to dramatically expand its program to get travelers through airport checkpoints faster by inviting them to pay a nominal fee for voluntary background checks.

TSA's Pre-check program offers travelers separate lines at checkpoints, where they leave on shoes and light coats and keep laptops in their bags. The free program operates at 40 airports and now covers members of frequent-flier programs for Alaska, American, Delta, Hawaiian, United, US Airways and Virgin America airlines. Airlines invite frequent-fliers to apply with little more than the information provided when buying a ticket.

But TSA Administrator John Pistole announced Friday the agency will expand eligibility for the program to include travelers who pay a one-time fee of $85 for five years, to cover an application with identifying information such as address and birthplace, a background check and fingerprinting.

Enrollment centers are initially scheduled to open in the fall at Washington's Dulles and Indianapolis airports, but the program is expected to expand at numerous locations nationwide.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2013/07/19/tsa-screening-pre-check-global-entry-dulles-indianapolis/2568101/

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Ohio

Columbus Police Form Community Policing Unit

The Columbus Police Department has formed a pro-active community policing unit called C.O.P.P.S., which stands for Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving. The new unit begins work tomorrow.

Police Chief Jason Maddix says Officers Troy Love, John Searle and Toby Combest will be assigned to the unit and will work a variety of assignments such as saturation patrols, parades, community events and neighborhood meetings. Their primary purpose will be to suppress criminal activity and further the department's community policing efforts.

"The demand for this unit came from our citizens. We now have the resources to focus squarely on drug dealers and other criminals who may be embedded in our neighborhoods," Maddix said. "The C.O.P.P.S. unit will be a direct extension of our narcotics team, detective division and public relations office. I have high expectations for these officers, who were selected based upon their commitment to community policing, work ethic and high activity levels. We already have a long list of assignments for these officers, so they will be busy."

The recent hiring and training of several new Columbus police officers has providing the staffing level to form this unit. The Columbus Police Department anticipates being at full staff - 79 sworn officers - by November.

http://wcsi.whiterivernews.com/templates/localnews_temp.asp?id=7550&storyno=4

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California

EDITORIAL

Policing the 'flash mobs'

A Hollywood rampage is a reminder that police need sufficient resources to keep pace with technologies and social movements that can undermine public safety.

As crime in Los Angeles has dropped from the frightening levels of the 1990s to the astonishingly low rates of the last decade, pressure from residents and leaders to spend more money on law enforcement has turned into pressure to instead spend less, especially when so many other city services have been cut to accommodate shrinking budgets. But a well-trained police department with enough officers and expertise to respond rapidly to trouble isn't simply a previous era's priority. It is a perpetual need.

Tuesday night's rampage in Hollywood, which may have been incited and organized through social media, is a reminder that police need sufficient resources to keep pace with technologies and social movements that can undermine public safety, and to respond in force to more than a single spot within the city at any given time.

Police speculated that a group of teenagers communicating through Twitter targeted the entertainment and tourist district for an evening of lawlessness in part because they knew a large number of officers would be deployed elsewhere — in the Crenshaw district, where on previous nights peaceful protests against the acquittal in Florida of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin were interrupted by violence. As many as 40 or 50 teenagers converged on Hollywood, where they knocked down pedestrians and in some cases took their cellphones, watches and other items. No serious injuries were reported, but the episode was not merely an irritating romp by teenagers with too much time on their hands. There were robberies and assaults.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-police-flash-mob-hollywood-20130719,0,2199433.story

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July 19, 2013

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California

Have You Been Missing Your Senior Lead Officer Lately?

If so, you're not alone—and neither is your senior lead, who's been patrolling other neighborhoods more frequently.

In June, Highland Park Senior Lead Officers Mark Allen and Fernando Ochoa spent an average of three of their four workdays policing the neighborhood—and “if there's a sense that senior lead officers are being pulled away” from their primary responsibility, “the short answer is yes,” according to Los Angeles Police Department Northeast Division Capt. Jeff Bert.

Allen's and Ochoa's 25-percent absence from Highland Park isn't anything out of the ordinary, however, and is part of what the LAPD does every summer to cope with the absence of officers on vacation, while trying to meet the force's mandate to consistently have at least 85 percent of its officers on patrol duty.

“But that number increases because there's more crime in summer and more cops are needed on patrols,” Bert told Eagle Rock Patch in an interview Thursday.

But summer also happens to be the time when the number of officers on vacation hits an annual peak.

“At any one time in the year, no more than 11 percent of cops are on vacation—and we're at that 11-percent level right now,” Bert said. “When you couple that with the 85-percent patrol requirement, it becomes a challenge” for senior lead officers to focus exclusively on their communities.

http://highlandpark-ca.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/have-you-been-missing-your-senior-lead-officer-lately_2dc8e374

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Police photographer releases photos of Boston bombing suspect on night he was captured

Massachusetts State Trooper relieved of his duties, will face disciplinary hearing next week

BOSTON -- A police photographer, furious with a Rolling Stone cover photo he believes glamorizes the surviving Boston Marathon suspect, released gritty images Thursday from the day he was captured.

Photos released to Boston Magazine by Massachusetts State Police tactical photographer Sgt. Sean Murphy show a downcast, disheveled Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with the red dot of a sniper's rifle laser sight boring into his forehead.

The pictures were taken when Tsarnaev was captured April 19, bleeding and hiding in a dry-docked boat in a Watertown backyard.

Murphy said in a statement to Boston Magazine that Tsarnaev is evil and that his photos show the "real Boston bomber, not someone fluffed and buffed for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine."

The April 15 bombing killed three people and injured more than 260. Massachusetts Institute of Technology officer Sean Collier was allegedly killed April 18 by Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, who died following a shootout with police later that evening.

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_23689641/police-photographer-releases-photos-boston-bombing-suspect-night

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Detroit: How the Motor City went bust

Kevyn Orr, the city's appointd emergency manager, formally sought federal bankruptcy court protection.

DETROIT — Detroit, the once-thriving Midwest metropolis that gave birth to the nation's auto industry, is now the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy.

Kevyn Orr, the city's appointd emergency manager, formally sought federal bankruptcy court protection on Thursday after Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, approved the filing, deeming the decision necessary "as a last resort to return this great city to financial and civic health for its residents and taxpayers."

"I know many will see this as a low point in the city's history," Snyder wrote in a letter authorizing the bankruptcy filing. "If so, I think it will also be the foundation of the city's future — a statement I cannot make in confidence absent giving the city a chance for a fresh start, without burdens of debt it cannot hope to fully pay."

In the letter, Snyder explained his decision by citing statistics that have hobbled the city's operations:

• The city's unemployment rate has nearly tripled since 2000 and is more than double the national average. • The homicide rate is at historically high levels, and the city has been named among America's most dangerous for more than 20 years. • Detroiters wait an average of 58 minutes for police to respond, compared with the national average of 11 minutes. • An estimated 40% of the city's street lights didn't work in the first quarter of 2013. • Roughly 78,000 city structures have been abandoned.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/18/detroit-files-for-bankruptcy/2567159/

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World Trade Center owners' bid to sue airlines for 9/11 attacks blocked

A Manhattan federal judge barred a multibillion-dollar lawsuit, citing state laws prohibiting ‘double recovery on the same loss.'

The owners of the World Trade Center were blocked Thursday from filing a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the two airlines whose hijacked planes brought down the twin towers.

The ruling from Manhattan Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein came after a four-day trial where the doomed skyscrapers' owners sought to sue for at least $3.5 billion in the 9/11 terrorist attack.

“If this case were to go forward, the WTC companies would not be able to recover anything against the airlines,” Hellerstein ruled in the non-jury trial.

Real estate developer Larry Silverstein and World Trade Center Properties have already collected nearly $5 billion toward reconstruction.

But they sought additional money from United Airlines Inc., American Airlines Inc. and the latter's parent company, AMR Corp., alleging their negligence let the terrorists board the flights.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/wtc-owners-bid-sue-airlines-blocked-article-1.1402923?localLinksEnabled=false

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World Trade Center 40th anniversary:
A look back at the iconic Twin Towers through the years

(Slideshow on site)

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/world-trade-center-40th-anniversary-gallery-1.1307674

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From the FBI

Homegrown Terrorism -- Self-Radicalized American Incited Violent Jihad Online

Those who have met Emerson Begolly in person might describe him as a shy young man. But online, the 24-year-old was the complete opposite—he forcefully incited jihadist violence against Americans and Jews. And when FBI agents attempted to talk to him in 2011, he reached for a loaded handgun in his pocket and then bit the agents who disarmed him.

Today, a federal judge sentenced Begolly to eight years and six months in prison for soliciting others to engage in acts of terrorism within the United States and for using a firearm in relation to an assault on FBI agents. Begolly pled guilty in August 2011 after being indicted less than a month earlier.

“This is a guy who definitely had the potential to hurt people,” said Special Agent Blake McGuire, who led part of the investigation from our Pittsburgh office. “He was a disaffected U.S. citizen who was susceptible to the message of violent extremism, and he became self-radicalized on the Internet. That type of offender—the so-called lone wolf—is extremely dangerous,” McGuire added, “because they can be difficult to discover before they resort to violence.”

Begolly came to the FBI's attention in 2010 when he began posting violent material on an Islamic extremist Internet forum. Using the pseudonym Abu Nancy, the Pennsylvania resident and occasional college student solicited fellow jihadists to use firearms and explosives against American police stations, post offices, Jewish schools and daycare centers, military facilities, train lines, and water plants. He further urged his audience to “write their legacy in blood” and promised a special place in the afterlife for violent action in the name of Allah.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2013/july/self-radicalized-american-incited-violent-jihad-online/self-radicalized-american-incited-violent-jihad-online

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