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December, 2014 - Week 1

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Hawaii

Pearl Harbor survivors reunite in Hawaii to mark 73rd anniversary of attack

by Treena Shapiro

More than 50 World War Two veterans will gather in Honolulu on Sunday to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that left more than 2,000 Americans dead and thrust the United States into the war.

The early morning ceremony on the main lawn of the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center was expected to draw 2,500 people, organizers said.

Among them will be four of the nine remaining Pearl Harbor survivors who have traveled to Oahu for the last official gathering of the USS Arizona Reunion Association.

The ceremony, overlooking the USS Arizona Memorial, is part of a nationwide remembrance of the surprise air attack on the Pacific Fleet by Japanese pilots on Dec. 7, 1941.

The bombing took about 2,400 lives and sunk or damaged 21 vessels and 323 military planes.

On Friday, President Barack Obama proclaimed Dec. 7 to be National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

"Today, with solemn gratitude, we recall the sacrifice of all who served during World War Two, especially those who gave their last full measure of devotion and the families they left behind," said Obama, who was born in Hawaii.

The ceremony on Oahu will include music by the Navy's U.S. Pacific Fleet Band, morning colors, a Hawaiian blessing, a cannon salute by the U.S. Army, echo taps and wreath presentations.

At 7:55 a.m. (1755 GMT), the time the first bombs fell, a whistle from the USS Chung-Hoon will signal the beginning of a moment of silence that will conclude with a missing man flyover in honor of those who died.

Recognizing that many World War Two veterans and Pearl Harbor survivors cannot travel to Hawaii, the event will be streamed live via a webcast.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/07/us-usa-hawaii-pearlharbor-idUSKBN0JL0E420141207

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New York

Chokehold death protest gets violent in California

by VERENA DOBNIK

Mostly peaceful protests of a grand jury's decision not to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man continued around the country, but authorities said a march in California turned violent when demonstrators smashed windows and threw bricks and rocks at police.

A Berkeley police officer received hospital treatment for a dislocated shoulder after being hit with a sandbag, while another sustained minor injuries, police spokeswoman Jenn Coats said.

She said several businesses were looted and damaged during the march Saturday night, and officers attempting to get the crowd to disperse used tear gas. Some squad cars were also damaged.

Authorities did not provide further details of any injuries or arrests. "The total number of arrests and injuries is not known at this time," Coats said.

Thousands of demonstrators have protested peacefully in New York and elsewhere since the announcement Wednesday that a grand jury declined to indict a white officer in the death of Eric Garner, a black man who gasped "I can't breathe!" while being placed in a chokehold as he was being arrested for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. The decision closely followed a Ferguson, Missouri, grand jury's choice not to indict a white officer in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.

The scope of the demonstrations and the lack of violence were moving to Garner's mother and widow, they said Saturday.

"It is just so awesome to see how the crowds are out there," said Eric Garner's mother, Gwen Carr, who added that she ended up stuck in her car after protests shut down traffic.

"I was just so proud of that crowd," Carr said. "It just warmed my heart."

Garner's widow, Esaw Garner, said she saw demonstrators from her apartment window and told her son, "Look at all the love that your father's getting."

Officers have said the outcry over the grand jury decision has left them feeling betrayed and demonized by everyone from the president and the mayor to throngs of protesters who scream at them on the street.

"Police officers feel like they are being thrown under the bus," said Patrick Lynch, president of the police union.

Garner's family members joined the Rev. Al Sharpton later Saturday as Sharpton laid a wreath at the site on Staten Island where Garner died July 17 in a confrontation that started when police tried to arrest him.

An amateur video seen by millions showed Garner gasping, "I can't breathe" during the fatal encounter.

"All we're concerned about is justice from the police," said Garner's stepfather, Benjamin Carr, who wore a T-shirt with the words, "Enough is enough."

Protests continued in New York City for a fourth day with several dozen people lying down on the floor of Grand Central Terminal and marching into stores in Times Square. There were no reports of arrests.

Protests have also been held in Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas and a number of other cities.

In Seattle, several hundred people marched downtown to police headquarters Saturday. Authorities said a group then split off from the main protest and tried to get onto a roadway. Police say some protesters threw rocks at officers who blocked them from entering it. Seven were arrested.

Sharpton announced plans this week for a march in Washington, D.C., next Saturday to protest the killings of Garner, Brown and others and to press for change at the federal level.

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/Protest-of-chokehold-death-turns-violent-in-5940965.php

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Virginia

Saudi-Born U.S. Navy Engineer Caught Stealing Secrets For Foreign Government

by Nicholas Kurch

Federal prosecutors have indicted a U.S. Navy civilian engineer after he was allegedly caught stealing in an elaborate FBI sting operation.

According to an FBI affidavit, the Naval engineer stole top secret schematics of the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, the newest and most advanced aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy.

Mostafa Ahmed Awwad, 35, of Virginia had allegedly provided drawings and technical data to someone whom he believed was an Egyptian intelligence agent. But Awwad was in for a surprise. His contact wasn't an Egyptian agent at all, but an undercover FBI agent.

According to the affidavit, Awwad told the agent he would use his position in the Navy to obtain military technology, on the understanding that it was for the Egyptian government.

Awwad was originally contacted by an undercover agent in September. He arranged to use ‘dead-drop' locations and a meeting at a hotel where he discussed how to sink the aircraft carrier, according to the affidavit.

“During the meeting, Awwad claimed it was his intention to utilize his position of trust with the U.S. Navy to obtain military technology for use by the Egyptian government, including but not limited to, the designs of the USS Gerald Ford nuclear aircraft carrier,” federal prosecutors alleged.

The undercover agent and Awwad carried out their conversations in Arabic. The undercover agent posed as an Egyptian agent under the name ‘Yousef.'

Awwad was born in Saudia Arabia, but became a U.S. citizen after he was married in Cairo in 2007. The Navy hired him to work in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard's nuclear engineering and planning department, where he has worked since February. Awwad received his security clearance in August.

Awwad faces charges of attempted exportation of defense articles and technical data. For each charge, he could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/12/213043-u-s-navy-engineer-caught-stealing-secrets-foreign-government/

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Profiling rules exempt agents at airports, border

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal agents who guard the border and screen passengers at airports would be exempt from new racial profiling guidelines that must be observed by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. The Obama administration is to announce those guidelines in coming days, but officials say the changes would curtail numerous federal agencies from considering factors such as religion and national origin during investigations.

A U.S. official familiar with the guidelines said Friday night that the new rules banning racial profiling exempt the Transportation Security Administration and also do not cover inspections at ports of entry and interdictions at border crossings. The official was not authorized to discuss the guidelines by name and spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement expected soon.

The new guidelines apply to federal law enforcement agents but aren't binding on local police departments whose officers who are more likely to have day-to-day contact with community members. Their formulation also long predates the high-profile cases, such as the August police shooting in Ferguson, that have placed police treatment of minorities in the spotlight.

But the guidelines nonetheless are a significant legacy for outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder and come during a time of national reckoning about racial bias in law enforcement and community relations with police.

“This new guidance will codify our commitment to the very highest standards of fair and effective policing,” Holder told an audience in Atlanta on Monday night in previewing the announcement.

Federal law enforcement agents are banned from routine racial profiling under a 2003 Bush administration policy that created a significant exemption for national security investigations. The new policy will expand the definition of racial profiling to ban the practice on the basis of characteristics including religion, national origin and sexual orientation, the official said.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the inclusion of those categories represented a “significant leap forward” in guarding against profiling.

But the guidelines will not end the FBI's ability to collect racial and ethnic information about neighborhoods, a practice known as “mapping” that has long disquieted civil liberties advocates, said Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office.

“In essence, the guidance is a major improvement, but it's not sufficient,” she said.

The outlines of the guidelines were first reported by The Washington Post on Friday night.

The guidelines apply to law enforcement agencies within the Justice Department, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the U.S. official. The official added that the Department of Homeland Security — which handles airport and border security, among other priorities — objected to being subject to the same rules.

ACLU officials said they were troubled that the protocols wouldn't apply to Homeland Security components who serve at the border or in airports, saying that exemption would disproportionately affect Latinos and religious minorities.

“Focusing on an entire class of people instead of on actual conduct is unfair and harms our national security by wasting scarce government resources and eroding minority communities' trust in government,” the group said in a statement.

Holder has made civil rights a cornerstone priority as attorney general, and the issue has taken on added importance in recent months with the Ferguson case and the July chokehold death of New York man Eric Garner.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/profiling-rules-exempt-agents-at-airports-border/article_be538ee3-6074-508a-8eed-6f6f79eb9d28.html

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From ICE

Colombia, US law enforcement seize 270 kilograms of cocaine bound for US

CARTAGENA, Colombia — A cargo container ship docked here was going to be used to transport more than ‘routine' cargo after law enforcement authorities discovered 270 kilos of cocaine Wednesday ready to be concealed on the ship's hull.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents assigned to the Assistant Attaché Office in Cartagena, Colombia, assisted the Colombian Attorney General's Transnational Criminal Investigative Unit and the Colombian Navy with the investigation leading to the discovery of the contraband.

The drug trafficking organization (DTO) responsible for the load was gearing up to hide the cocaine within three parasitic devices that would have been attached to the hull. The contraband was found at a house adjacent to the dock before the DTO's divers were able to attach it. This seizure is the most recent local bust of narcotics destined for the United States.

Colombian authorities arrested a Colombian national linked to the DTO. Additional arrests are anticipated as the investigation is ongoing.

"Through operations like this, the global law enforcement community is sending a strong message to DTOs everywhere saying: we're here, we're united and we're coming after you," said Cartagena Assistant Attaché Fernando Plascencia. "I commend the Colombian government for their unrelenting efforts in targeting organizations and individuals involved in this illegal activity that hurts so many."

HSI has 67 offices and eight Department of Defense liaisons in 48 countries around the world with more than 380 government and contract personnel committed to the agency's mission. The attachés, part of HSI's International Operations, oversee HSI investigations and serve as agency liaisons to local government and law enforcement counterparts in countries across the globe.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/colombia-us-law-enforcement-seize-270-kilograms-cocaine-bound-us

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From the FBI

New Top Ten Fugitive -- Help Us Find a Murderer

(Picture on site)

Yaser Abdel Said, wanted for the murder of his two teenage daughters in Texas, has been named to the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered for information leading directly to the arrest of Said, who was born in Egypt and may be hiding there or in U.S. communities with Egyptian ties.

On January 1, 2008, Said persuaded his estranged daughters—Amina, 18, and Sarah, 17—to visit him. He said he was going to take them to get something to eat. Instead, he allegedly drove them in his taxi cab to a remote location and used a handgun to murder them. One of the girls was able to make a 911 call and was heard screaming for help, saying she and her sister were being shot by their father. Their bodies were discovered several hours later in the cab, which was abandoned outside a hotel in Irving, Texas.

“Yaser Abdel Said is wanted for his alleged role in committing a terrible act of violence against his own daughters,” said Diego Rodriguez, special agent in charge of our Dallas Field Office. “Adding him to the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list shows our commitment to seek justice for Amina and Sarah.”

Since the murders nearly seven years ago, the case has received widespread publicity, and law enforcement has followed every credible lead, but Said remains at large. Today's announcement, Rodriguez noted, should draw increased attention to the case. “We believe that the combination of publicity, the significant reward, and the team of experienced investigators working the case from the Dallas Violent Crimes Task Force and the Irving Police Department will result in Said's arrest.”

Special Agent Gil Balli, a task force supervisor who is leading the investigation, explained that “Said likely fled immediately after the murders. There have been many reports that he is in the U.S., but we are not ruling out the possibility that he is abroad.” Balli added that investigators are coordinating with law enforcement partners in Egypt and Canada along with U.S. law enforcement agencies.

The last confirmed sighting of Said, now age 57, was in Irving, Texas, in 2008. He is 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighs about 180 pounds, and has brown eyes, black hair, and possibly a thick moustache.

In addition to Egypt and Canada, investigators believe Said has ties to the Dallas-Fort Worth region and the New York City area. He frequents diners—including Denny's and IHOP restaurants—smokes Marlboro Lights 100s cigarettes, and loves dogs, especially tan- and black-colored German Shepherds. He may be working as a taxi driver.

Said—the 504th person to be named to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since its creation in 1950—is considered armed and dangerous. He reportedly carries a weapon with him at all times.

We need your help: If you have information about Yaser Abdel Said, call 1-800-CALL-FBI, or contact your nearest law enforcement agency or U.S. Embassy or Consulate. You can also submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.

“These murders were brutal and cold-blooded,” Balli said. “If a person is capable of killing his own daughters, there is no telling what he might do. We need to catch this individual and prevent him from harming anyone else.”

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/december/new-top-ten-fugitive-help-us-find-a-murderer/new-top-ten-fugitive-help-us-find-a-murderer

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WMD Training

FBI Worst-Case Exercise Tests Response to Chemical Attack

When the facility manager for a hazardous waste disposal company near Houston took his seat at the table with law enforcement officials and emergency first responders, he knew it was going to be a very bad day. In the coming hours, his facility would experience a break-in, a fire, and the theft of a chemical agent that would be intentionally released at a popular waterfront amusement park, sending a poisonous plume across the region.

The fictional worst-case scenario was designed by the FBI's Chemical Countermeasures Unit—part of our Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Directorate—to shake out any weaknesses in the region's elaborate network of emergency responders. The daylong exercise, attended by more than two dozen local, state, and federal agencies, raised all the tangly issues that come up in real catastrophic events: Who has jurisdiction? Who is the lead investigative agency? Who is qualified to appropriately respond?

“It's an excellent opportunity for everybody to get together and learn what each other's capabilities are,” said Special Agent Amanda Koldjeski, a WMD coordinator in the FBI's Houston Division, which hosted the training event in October as part of the Bureau's ongoing effort to reach out to first responders and high-risk chemical facility operators about potential threats in their areas.

The exercise also showed how private industry has an important seat at the table in dynamic events like this, since they know their materials and vulnerabilities better than anyone else, and they are most likely to be the first to recognize suspicious activity related to their own operations.

“As a manager you never want to be responsible for something like this going on,” said Bruce Shelton, manager of the waste disposal site in La Porte, just outside of Houston, that was targeted in the exercise (the Houston area is home to the largest concentration of chemical facilities in the U.S.). “But I know that we absolutely need to be in contact with our local emergency planning folks in this type of environment, because we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.”

In the scenario, things go from bad to worse very quickly, and agency representatives are confronted with real-time questions about how they will respond in what is emerging as an act of domestic terrorism. Who is the incident commander? Is this an ongoing attack? Are we evacuating? Are your people trained to operate in personal protective equipment? Do they have access to that equipment? Knowing the roles and skills of all parties in advance can reduce confusion in a real incident, whether it's a terrorist attack or an accident.

“We have a lot of incidents that happen in this part of the country, so I think it's good for us to review those so we hopefully limit the number of potential mistakes,” said Mark Sloan, coordinator of the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. “Any time you get face time with your partners, it's going to benefit you when you meet at 2 a.m. and say, ‘Hi, what resources do we have available to us?'”

Each of the FBI's 56 field offices has at least one WMD coordinator whose job includes establishing relationships with local partner agencies and private companies to prevent WMD attacks. In making the rounds, the coordinators share prevailing threats and become key points of contact when a suspicious incident arises in the WMD arena.

“Our WMD coordinators are the face of the Bureau when they go out and meet the locals,” said Chris Freeze, assistant special agent in charge of the Houston Division, who participated in the exercise.

Bruce Shelton, the facility manager, had never dealt with most of the individuals or agencies that participated in the exercise. Seeing the response unfold in front of him gave him a fresh perspective on his own role in securing his site and helping in a coordinated response.

“There are a lot of resources out there that I haven't used until now,” he said after the scenario concluded. “It's good to know where they're at and who they are.”

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/december/fbi-wmd-exercise-tests-response-to-chemical-attack/fbi-wmd-exercise-tests-response-to-chemical-attack

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In the Line of Duty

Annual ‘Officers Killed' Report More Than a Tally of Losses

The FBI's annual Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) report that was released earlier this week details in chilling narratives and statistics how 76 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in 2013.

While the LEOKA report offers a stark reminder of the dangers police face every day, the main reason for gathering the comprehensive data about line-of-duty fatalities, assaults, and accidents is to prevent them from occurring in the future. In addition to collecting details about the critical aspects of fatal confrontations and assaults, the FBI's LEOKA program conducts extensive research on the data that eventually gets incorporated into the officer safety awareness training the FBI provides for partner agencies.

“It's a three-prong program,” said Brian McAllister, a training instructor for LEOKA, a unit in the Bureau's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division. “LEOKA is about data, it's about research, and it's about training.”

The data is collected from participating agencies across the country as part of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program and is published in conjunction with Crime in the United States , the FBI's annual dissemination of crime statistics. Over the years, researchers led by the LEOKA program have performed deep-dives into the data and published research aimed at giving officers a sharper understanding of what types of scenarios and circumstances have resulted in fatalities and assaults—and how to avoid them. The research delves well beyond statistics to include in-depth interviews with officers who were victims of assaults or involved in incidents that resulted in officer fatalities. The LEOKA program staff—former police officers—also interview the perpetrators of police deaths, hoping to provide a window into what compelled them to make a fatal move on a law enforcement officer.

For rookie and veteran officers going through LEOKA's Officer Safety Awareness Training, it's these first-hand accounts that bring the job's dangers to the fore. “It's a wake-up call for officers in the class to see and listen to an interview with an offender who has killed a police officer,” said McAllister, who conducts some of the interviews in addition to teaching the eight-hour seminars.

“It makes a huge impact on these guys,” said Lt. Herb Rosenbaum, of the Trussville Police Department near Birmingham, Alabama. “When we're out on the road, we all have a tendency to fall into a routine. You've made a thousand traffic stops and you've never been challenged. This brings it back to the forefront.”

The LEOKA program has released three multi-year studies tailored toward improving officer safety— Killed in the Line of Duty (1992), In the Line of Fire (1997), and Violent Encounters (2006). Each zeroed in on a subset of fatality and assault cases in prior years and looked for common threads that might illustrate better ways to assess or respond to a situation.

More recent statistics have shown a significant uptick in ambushes and unprovoked attacks on police, which prompted the LEOKA program to embark on a new study in 2013 that will include the unique perspectives of ambush victims and perpetrators. The study, due out in 2016, is reviewing cases from 1995 to 2011, looking for general themes of offender motives and officer perceptions.

“We want to figure out why the offenders were doing what they were doing and how the police officers reacted to see if there's anything we can link in the study that would enhance police officer safety,” said James Sheets, a LEOKA training instructor.

Special Agent Michael Freeman, who coordinates training for the Norfolk (Virginia) Field Office, said LEOKA training is popular with police departments and other agencies in his region. He said the sobering information and first-person accounts help ensure against complacency.

“What adds so much value,” Freeman said, “is receiving the perception of the offender and why that individual made the decision to challenge that law enforcement professional.”

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/november/annual-officers-killed-report-more-than-a-tally-of-losses

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From the Department of Homeland Security

Fixing Our Broken Immigration System Through Executive Action - Key Facts

(En español)

The President asked Secretary Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to undertake a rigorous and inclusive review to inform recommendations on reforming our broken immigration system through executive action. This review sought the advice and input from the men and women charged with implementing the policies, as well as the ideas of a broad range of stakeholders and Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle. Our assessment identified the following ten areas where we, within the confines of the law, could take action to increase border security, focus enforcement resources, and ensure accountability in our immigration system.

Executive Actions

Strengthen Border Security

DHS will implement a Southern Border and Approaches Campaign Strategy to fundamentally alter the way in which we marshal resources to the border. This new plan will employ DHS assets in a strategic and coordinated way to provide effective enforcement of our laws and interdict individuals seeking to illegally across land, sea, and air. To accomplish this, DHS is commissioning three task forces of various law enforcement agencies. The first will focus on the southern maritime border. The second will be responsible for the southern land border and the West Coast. The third will focus on investigations to support the other two task forces. In addition, DHS will continue the surge of resources that effectively reduced the number of unaccompanied children crossing the border illegally this summer. This included additional Border Patrol agents, ICE personnel, criminal investigators, additional monitors, and working with DOJ to reorder dockets in immigration courts, along with reforms in these courts.

•  Executive Action: Strengthen Border Security (1.5 MB PDF)

Revise Removal Priorities

DHS will implement a new department-wide enforcement and removal policy that places top priority on national security threats, convicted felons, gang members, and illegal entrants apprehended at the border; the second-tier priority on those convicted of significant or multiple misdemeanors and those who are not apprehended at the border, but who entered or reentered this country unlawfully after January 1, 2014; and the third priority on those who are non-criminals but who have failed to abide by a final order of removal issued on or after January 1, 2014. Under this revised policy, those who entered illegally prior to January 1, 2014, who never disobeyed a prior order of removal, and were never convicted of a serious offense, will not be priorities for removal. This policy also provides clear guidance on the exercise of prosecutorial discretion.

•  Executive Action: Revise Removal Priorities (3.2 MB PDF)

End Secure Communities and Replace it with New Priority Enforcement Program

DHS will end the Secure Communities program, and replace it with the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) that will closely and clearly reflect DHS's new top enforcement priorities. The program will continue to rely on fingerprint-based biometric data submitted during bookings by state and local law enforcement agencies and will identify to law enforcement agencies the specific criteria for which we will seek an individual in their custody. The list of largely criminal offenses is taken from Priorities 1 and 2 of our new enforcement priorities. In addition, we will formulate plans to engage state and local governments on enforcement priorities and will enhance Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) ability to arrest, detain, and remove individuals deemed threats to national security, border security, or public safety.

•  Executive Action: End Secure Communities and Replace it with New Priority Enforcement Program (1.5 MB PDF)

Personnel Reform for ICE Officers

Related to these enforcement and removal reforms, we will support job series realignment and premium ability pay coverage for ICE ERO officers engaged in removal operations. These measures are essential to bringing ICE agents and officers pay in line with other law enforcement personnel.

•  Executive Action: Personnel Reform for ICE Officers (1.0 MB PDF)

Expand Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program

We will expand eligibility for DACA to encompass a broader class of children. DACA eligibility was limited to those who were under 31 years of age on June 15, 2012, who entered the U.S. before June 15, 2007, and who were under 16 years old when they entered. DACA eligibility will be expanded to cover all undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. before the age of 16, and not just those born after June 15, 1981. We will also adjust the entry date from June 15, 2007 to January 1, 2010. The relief (including work authorization) will now last for three years rather than two.

•  Executive Action: Expand Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program (2.8 MB PDF)

Extend Deferred Action to Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA)

DHS will extend eligibility for deferred action to individuals who (i) are not removal priorities under our new policy, (ii) have been in this country at least 5 years, (iii) have children who on the date of this announcement are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, and (iv) present no other factors that would make a grant of deferred action inappropriate. These individuals will be assessed for eligibility for deferred action on a case-by-case basis, and then be permitted to apply for work authorization, provided they pay a fee. Each individual will undergo a thorough background check of all relevant national security and criminal databases, including DHS and FBI databases. With work-authorization, these individuals will pay taxes and contribute to the economy.

•  Executive Action: Extend Deferred Action to Parents of U.S. Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (2.8 MB PDF)

Expand Provisional Waivers to Spouses and Children of Lawful Permanent Residents

The provisional waiver program DHS announced in January 2013 for undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens will be expanded to include the spouses and children of lawful permanent residents, as well as the adult children of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. At the same time, we will further clarify the “extreme hardship” standard that must be met to obtain the waiver.

•  Executive Action: Expand Provisional Waivers to Spouses and Children of Lawful Permanent Residents (1.0 MB PDF)

Revise Parole Rules

DHS will begin rulemaking to identify the conditions under which talented entrepreneurs should be paroled into the United States , on the ground that their entry would yield a significant public economic benefit. DHS will also support the military and its recruitment efforts by working with the Department of Defense to address the availability of parole-in-place and deferred action to spouses, parents, and children of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents who seek to enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces. DHS will also issue guidance to clarify that when anyone is given “advance parole” to leave the country – including those who obtain deferred action - they will not be considered to have departed. Undocumented aliens generally trigger a 3- or 10-year bar to returning to the United States when they depart.

•  Executive Action: Revise Parole Rules - Entrepreneurs (2.6 MB PDF)

•  Executive Action: Revise Parole Rules - Parole-in-Place and Deferred Action (711 KB PDF)

•  Executive Action: Revise Parole Rules - Advance Parole (690 KB)

Promote the Naturalization Process

To promote access to U.S. citizenship, we will permit the use of credit cards as a payment option for the naturalization fee, and expand citizenship public awareness. It is important to note that the naturalization fee is $680, currently payable only by cash, check or money order. DHS will also explore the feasibility of expanding fee waiver options.

•  Executive Action: Promote the Naturalization Process (1 MB PDF)

Support High-skilled Business and Workers

DHS will take a number of administrative actions to better enable U.S. businesses to hire and retain highly skilled foreign-born workers and strengthen and expand opportunities for students to gain on-the-job training. For example, because our immigration system suffers from extremely long waits for green cards, we will amend current regulations and make other administrative changes to provide needed flexibility to workers with approved employment-based green card petitions.

•  Executive Action: Support High-skilled Business and Workers (2.6 MB PDF)

http://www.dhs.gov/immigration-action?utm_source=hp_feature&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=dhs_hp

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Protests Spread Across Country After Garner Decision

Protesters Disrupt Traffic, Shopping in Major Cities; Demonstrations Become More Organized, With Goals

by Laura Meckler and Thomas MacMillan

Another round of protests erupted Friday in major cities as demonstrators blocked traffic and staged “die-ins” following this week's grand jury decision in New York not to indict a white officer in the choke-hold death of an unarmed black man.

It was the latest in a wave of demonstrations that have become increasingly sophisticated and organized, with specific goals, as organic protests have transformed—in fits and starts—into what many organizers hope will become a durable movement.

On Friday, protesters took to the streets again in cities included New York, Chicago, Boston and others. In Cambridge, Mass., thousands of people marched from Tufts University to Harvard Square in a protest organized through a Facebook campaign. Dozens of protesters staged a die-in, blocking an intersection by lying on the road.

In Cleveland, expecting a crowd at the Public Square, city police encouraged commuters to leave work early on Friday to smooth rush hour traffic. Pittsburgh streets were temporarily blocked by marchers, who had converged on Forbes Avenue and headed toward Fifth Avenue.

In Jefferson City, Mo., chants of “Hands Up. Don't Shoot!” echoed through the Missouri Capitol as hundreds of people protesting Michael Brown's death in August rallied after the culmination of a week-long, 130-mile march from the site of the police shooting in Ferguson, the Associated Press reported.

Protesters converged Friday on some of New York City's most famous business centers. Hundreds of people chanting and holding signs entered the Macy's store on Herald Square. They stopped for about four minutes and laid on the floor. The group soon exited chanting “if we don't get it shut it down!”

A similar scenario took place at an Apple Store in Manhattan, and protesters also descended on Times Square and the area around the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. They marched down Fifth Avenue, greeting holiday shoppers on the sidewalks with pamphlets stating their demands.

New York City police made several arrests on Friday evening after protesters clambered onto FDR Drive -- one of Manhattan's busiest arteries -- and halted traffic. Some protesters fled, climbing a fence for a riverside park with police officers in pursuit.

It was the third straight day of demonstrations in New York, after a Staten Island grand jury delivered its decision. On Thursday night, the movement showed its sophistication as thousands of people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge, chanting slogans and later lying down in protest. Organizers wore headsets to communicate, and marchers came with cardboard coffins bearing the names of alleged victims of police violence.

Protesters were still gathering on the fly in some cities, but in other places it is clear that protesters have become organized in the months after spontaneous protests erupted over the death of Mr. Brown, the black 18-year-old shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo.

Protesters are setting concrete goals and gaining the attention of top political and police officials.

“We want to change policy. We want to change law,” said Teressa Raiford, who helps lead an Oregon coalition called Don't Shoot Portland that organizers intend to turn into a formal, nonprofit group. “We're working toward sustainability, creating an infrastructure that will not move.”

After the first Ferguson demonstrations, protesters there formed a network that grew into what is now called Ferguson Action. Among other things, it maintains a website that catalogs upcoming protests nationwide by date and place.

Ferguson Action allows for organic protest but provides basic coordination, said Mervyn Marcano, spokesman for the group. Organizers are now agreeing on locations for protest actions and setting up support squads to provide bail after arrests.

By the time the grand jury on Staten Island decided not to bring an indictment in the death of Eric Garner, organizers had already laid plans for a demonstration, including Thursday's march over the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a contrast to Wednesday, when spontaneous gatherings formed and marchers decided on the fly whether to go this way or that.

Many protest groups have specific policy goals. The New York group This Stops Today lists five, including “full accountability” for Mr. Garner's death; a Justice Department investigation of use-of-force policies by New York City police; and passage of a “Right to Know Act'' that, among other things, would require police to explain the reason for any enforcement activity and explain the legal basis for any searches.

Young people in Florida have succeeded in turning protests around the 2012 shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin into a permanent organization. Dream Defenders now has 10 chapters across the state and a $300,000 annual budget. The group lobbies and demonstrates for criminal justice, education and other issues. “We are participating in democracy in absolutely every way possible,” said spokesman Steven Pargett.

The Ferguson Action website lists several goals, including “demilitarization” of law enforcement, a congressional hearing on alleged racial profiling by police and creation of a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice.

This fall's protesters already have attracted high-level attention: This week, President Barack Obama met with young activists in the protests in Ferguson and elsewhere. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said he would push legislative changes, including perhaps the use of special prosecutors and police body cameras.

“A justice system that is colorblind—you have a large number of people in this country who don't believe that's the case, and that's the fundamental problem,” Mr. Cuomo said Friday on NBC.

In the 1960s, the civil-rights movement was driven by a cadre of organizations that helped channel anger and energy into major legislative and courtroom successes. In the decades since, Washington and New York have become accustomed to marches and rallies organized by established groups with paid staff, advancing a wide range of causes on well-publicized dates. They are complete with buses bringing people from around the country, high-profile speakers, entertainment and sophisticated sound systems.

This fall, the protests have been more organic. On Wednesday night, after the Staten Island grand jury decision, some 150 or 200 people stood in the middle of a Washington, D.C., intersection, and anyone from the crowd could take a turn at the microphone. The event was organized through social media and word of mouth.

The protests invite comparisons to the populist Occupy Wall Street movement, which also was marked by its lack of structure or hierarchy. Protesters who took over Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, in the financial district, succeeded in spawning similar occupations across the country, and popularizing the notion that the wealthiest “1%” of nation controlled a disproportionate amount of money and power.

“Various encampments were talking to each other, but nobody was commanding much of anything,” said Todd Gitlin, a sociology and communications professor at Columbia University and author of a book about the Occupy movement. Partly as a result, he said, the drive fell apart after the occupations ended. “It doesn't have any staying power.”

There is one major difference between that movement and those today: Occupy protesters cared about a diffuse set of causes, and the movement refused to issue any specific demands. The current protests have a clearer agenda focused on changing police practices.

The wide range of issues was “the gift and the curse of Occupy Wall Street,” said Daniel “Majesty” Sanchez, who participated in Occupy Wall Street and helped organize Thursday's march.

“The second you start to get super-focused on a particular issue, you might lose someone who is like, `You know, I'm all about labor rights.'”

http://online.wsj.com/articles/protests-break-out-nationwide-for-third-day-1417825427

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Arizona

Surveillance video shows what happened before deadly police shooting

by Fox News Staff

(Video on site)

PHOENIX -- Authorities have released surveillance video taken of a man who was shot and killed by Phoenix police shortly before the deadly confrontation.

The video from a nearby 7-Eleven store is likely the last known video of Rumain Brisbon before he was shot on Tuesday. It shows the 30-year-old backing a black SUV into a parking spot, then walking in and out of the business near Interstate 17 and Greenway.

The video was given to FOX 10 by employees at the store and is being reviewed by police as part of their investigation into the shooting death of Brisbon.

It was here where police were first alerted to Brisbon. Police say someone reported people inside the SUV selling drugs.

Brisbon's friend, who was in the vehicle with him, says they were only going to get food.

"I ain't ever seen him do no transactions. I can't say I've ever seen him with my own eyes," said Brandon Dickerson.

Brisbon left the store. Later, at the Cobblestone Apartments, where Brisbon lived, police say someone again told the same officer that the men in the black SUV were dealing drugs.

The officer approached the SUV and according to authorities, Brisbon ran from the officer, the two struggled in the doorway of an apartment. Investigators say Brisbon put his hand in his pocket, the officer grabbed it and thought he felt the handle of a gun.

Police say someone opened the apartment door, the two fell in, the officer lost his grip on Brisbon's hand, fearing he had a gun in his pocket, the officer fired twice.

Brisbon later died.

In a police report released Thursday, investigators say the item in Brisbon's pocket was not a gun, but instead, a bottle of oxycodone pills. Investigators say they did find a gun in Brisbon's SUV, along with marijuana.

But some are challenging the police department's account of what happened, expressing doubts while demonstrating in downtown Phoenix Thursday.

"I lost a friend last night, probably more than a friend, more like a brother," said Dickerson.

Phoenix Police say they've reviewed the video, but they have no comment on it.

Earlier Friday, attorneys representing the family of Rumain Brisbon asked that his autopsy be delayed. They want the medical examiner off of the autopsy -- questioning their procedures. That request was denied and the autopsy took place as scheduled.

In the meantime, the attorneys say they plan to have another medical examiner conduct a second autopsy after the county medical examiner's office releases its findings.

On Thursday, hundreds of people gathered in downtown Phoenix to remember Rumain Brisbon. Some even marched to the Phoenix Police headquarters to protest Brisbon's death.

A similar, but much larger protest took place Friday night and it all happened at First Friday in Phoenix.

http://www.fox10phoenix.com/story/27562641/2014/12/06/protesters-march-against-police-shootings-in-downtown-phoenix

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Ohio

Gov. John Kasich tackles infant mortality and community policing

by Henry J. Gomez

Kasich tackles infant mortality: Gov. John Kasich on Thursday announced new efforts to combat infant mortality, reports Robert Higgs of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. The plan will target "hot spot" communities, including Cleveland.

Ohio's infant mortality rate is nearly 30 percent higher than the national average, according to the Health Transformation Office. The rate reflects the number of babies who die within their first year of life per thousand live births.

Community-policing task force: Kasich and Attorney General Mike DeWine today will convene a group to research and recommend community-policing solutions.

Joining the Republicans at the noon event will be Democrats such as State Sen. Nina Turner and State Rep. Alicia Reece. Reece, of Cincinnati, heads the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus. Turner represents Cleveland, where a police officer recently shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice and where the U.S. Department of Justice this week issued a report that found police use excessive force and keep shoddy records.

Higgs has more on the task force.

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2014/12/gov_john_kasich_tackles_infant.html

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North Carolina

NFL Player Leaves $37.5 Million Contract To Help Feed Needy

by Eleanor Goldberg

While the St. Louis Rams continue to make headlines for their controversial nod to the Ferguson protesters, a former team member has taken up his own social cause on an entirely different field.

In 2012 -- after seven years in the NFL –- Jason Brown walked away from a $37.5 million contract because he felt he had found a higher calling. The former St. Louis Ram left the five-year deal to become a farmer and to help the hungry with the fruits of his labor, CBS reported.

“My agent told me, "You're making the biggest mistake of your life" Brown told CBS. "And I looked right back at him and I said, 'No I'm not. No I'm not.'"

While Brown, who was considered one of the best centers around, remained undeterred, it's no wonder his agent was floored with his client's decision.

In 2005, Brown was drafted to the Baltimore Ravens during the fourth round. He moved onto the Rams in 2009, where he was offered a competitive contract, and started every game but two from 2009 to 2011, according to the News & Observer.

When he said goodbye to the Rams in 2012, San Francisco, Carolina and Baltimore contacted him about potentially joining their teams, but Brown declined.

Though Brown had no training, he bought an 1,000-acre farm in Franklin County, North Carolina that year and teamed up with some experts to get his mission off the ground, according this his website.

The location was an apt choice considering that North Carolina's food insecurity rate is significantly higher than the national average.

Last year, 14 percent of American households were food insecure. Between 2011 and 2013, 17.3 percent of households in North Carolina experienced the same issue, according to Feeding America.

Brown picked up some tilling tips from YouTube and dubbed his initiative, "FirstFruits Farm" because he donates the first fruits of every harvest to food pantries.

Brown partnered with Wisdom for Life, a Christian-based ministry, and committed 2013 to “getting the farm back into shape,” he wrote on his website.

He connected with a number of relief groups, including the Food Bank of Eastern North Carolina, and got hands-on help from local farming experts and 600 volunteers, according to his site.

This year he donated more than 10,000 pounds of cucumbers and 100,000 pounds of sweet potatoes to local pantries.

“When I think about a life of greatness,” Brown told CBS, “I think about a life of service."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/03/jason-brown-quits-nfl_n_6263288.html

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New York

Protesters Swarm NYC Over Eric Garner Death For Second Night

by Robert MacMillan and Frank McGurty

NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Mostly peaceful protests flared for a second night on Thursday over a New York grand jury's decision declining to bring criminal charges against a white police officer in the choking death of an unarmed black man.

The reaction in New York and other cities to Wednesday's decision not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo for his role in the videotaped confrontation that left 43-year-old Eric Garner dead echoed a wave of outrage sparked nine days earlier by a similar outcome in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman in Missouri.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday promised a full investigation of the New York case.

Pantaleo could still face disciplinary action from an internal police investigation, his lawyer said, adding that he expects that process to move quickly and that his client would be exonerated.

A departmental investigation will likely focus on whether Pantaleo employed a chokehold, banned by New York Police Department regulations, in restraining Garner as he and other officers sought to arrest him for allegedly selling cigarettes illegally on a Staten Island sidewalk in July.

In addition to triggering protests around the country, the New York and Missouri cases have re-ignited debate over a U.S. law enforcement system widely perceived to unfairly target African Americans and other minorities.

SECOND NIGHT OF PROTESTS

Thousands of marchers snaked through the streets of Manhattan for a second night on Thursday, beginning at the evening rush hour and picking up recruits along the way, often weaving between cars and trucks and bringing traffic to a near standstill.

Tensions rose as a crowd of at least 3,000 congregated in Times Square about an hour before midnight, shouting at police, "Who do you protect?" as hundreds more officers moved in steadily to force protesters back onto sidewalks. There were a number of arrests, but no overt outbursts of violence.

Several police helicopters clattered above the skyscrapers overhead.

Hours earlier, protesters parading through lower Manhattan staged sporadic sit-ins at intersections before police in riot gear approached and warned them to move on or face arrest. Most of the marchers complied, and the atmosphere among the racially mixed crowd was boisterous, upbeat and mostly peaceful.

Sharon Gordon, 52, of Matawan, New Jersey, said she hoped politicians would take heed of the public outcry. "There's been a confluence of social media and outrage," she said. "I do believe for the first time we're about to make a change."

A second and third wave of marchers later crossed two bridges into Manhattan from Brooklyn, briefly closing both spans to traffic, then converged on Manhattan's southern tip, at the ferry terminal for Staten Island.

The main group of demonstrators, meanwhile, headed west and briefly closed the West Side Highway along the Hudson River, resulting in at least a handful of arrests, before turning north again through Greenwich Village and Chelsea.

A smaller crowd confronted police along the highway with taunts. Chesray Dolpha, 31, yelled at the officers: "We are not violent. We are not touching you. What are you doing with that baton, brother?" The police made eye contact but did not reply.

Thursday's rallies in New York and elsewhere were generally larger and more numerous on Thursday than the previous night.

Hundreds took to the streets of the nation's capital, chanting, "No justice, no peace, no racist police," as they marched by the U.S. Justice Department, passed near the White House and headed on to the Washington Monument. Protesters staged a "die-in" there, sprawling on the roadway to block traffic.

In Minneapolis, dozens of protesters blocked northbound traffic on Interstate 35W, at times marching or lying down in the middle of the highway, escorted by police in squad cars seeking to keep demonstrators moving.

Protesters in Chicago briefly disrupted traffic on Lake Shore Drive, and a crowd of demonstrators, reported by the Boston Globe to have numbered in the thousands, gathered at the annual holiday tree-lighting ceremony on the Boston Common.

CHOKEHOLDS AND RETRAINING

Unlike the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a policeman under disputed circumstances in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, Garner's encounter with New York City police was captured on video that went viral online.

The clip from a bystander's mobile phone shows Pantaleo grabbing Garner from behind with his arm wrapped around Garner's throat before he was wrestled to the pavement by Pantaleo and three other officers. While being subdued, Garner is heard repeatedly gasping, "I can't breathe" - a phrase that has become a rallying cry by demonstrators.

Pantaleo's lawyer, Stuart London, said in an interview Thursday that his client testified to the New York grand jury that he never put pressure on Garner's neck. Instead, Pantaleo said he used a proper takedown technique, London said.

Patrick Lynch, president of the patrolmen's union, agreed, calling Pantaleo a "model" officer at a news conference.

The city's medical examiner has said police officers killed Garner by compressing his neck and chest, adding that Garner's asthma and obesity had contributed to his death.

Although chokeholds are barred by New York City police regulations, the 2,000-page patrol guide is vague about whether such moves are permitted under certain circumstances, said Maria Haberfeld, who heads the law and criminal justice department at John Jay College.

That gray area, she said, may have influenced the grand jury and could be a factor in the departmental probe.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who took office in January promising to improve relations between minorities and police, told reporters on Thursday the city's thousands of patrol officers would undergo extensive retraining.

"The relationship between police and community has to change," he told a news conference. "People need to know that black lives and brown lives matter as much as white lives."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/04/protesters-nyc-chokehold_n_6273174.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arizona

Phoenix police shooting is latest to ignite outcry

by The Associated Press

The deadly shooting of a black, unarmed drug suspect by a white Phoenix police officer who mistook a pill bottle for a gun demonstrates the challenges law enforcement agencies face at a time of unrest over police tactics.

Phoenix police say the officer feared the suspect was armed during their struggle, but some critics say the officer went too far. Despite the department's efforts to be transparent with information, protesters marched Thursday night against the fatal shooting of 34-year-old Rumain Brisbon.

About 150 took part in the march through the streets of downtown Phoenix to police headquarters, while also calling for an end to what they say is a nationwide epidemic of police brutality.

The police chief and top prosecutor in metro Phoenix met with the president of the NAACP's Maricopa County Branch and other civil rights leaders in the hours after the incident, which came as emotions are running high in New York, Missouri and elsewhere over what protesters call heavy-handed law enforcement efforts.

The NAACP official, the Rev. Oscar Tillman, said friends and family members of Brisbon are devastated. He cautioned them about channeling their anger as the investigation into the shooting unfolds.

"I told them not to be openly explosive or whatever because the fact is ... as you can see what happened to Michael Brown's (stepfather) now. They're talking about going after him. I said 'just be very careful,'" Tillman said.

According to Sgt. Trent Crump, the officer responded Tuesday to reports of someone selling drugs out of a Cadillac SUV. Upon locating the SUV, he ordered Brisbon, the sole occupant, to show his hands.

Authorities say Brisbon ran inside an apartment building and then got into a struggle with the officer. Brisbon put his hand in his pocket, and when the officer grabbed the hand, he thought he felt the handle of a gun through Brisbon's pants, police said.

Police say the officer repeatedly told Brisbon to keep his hand in his pocket, then shot him twice when he didn't.

Brisbon, an ex-convict, was hit in the torso and later pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators recovered a semi-automatic handgun and a jar of marijuana from his SUV.

An internal investigation is already underway, Crump said Thursday. The Maricopa County attorney's office will determine whether the officer will face criminal charges. Police did not identify the 30-year-old officer but said he is a seven-year veteran of the department.

Marci Kratter, an attorney representing Brisbon's family, said she was unable to immediately comment when reached Thursday.

The Phoenix shooting occurred the day before a grand jury in New York City decided not to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of a black man. Video shows Eric Garner repeatedly gasped "I can't breathe" while Officer Daniel Pantaleo detained him in a chokehold. Dozens of protesters were arrested on New York streets Wednesday, police said.

A grand jury decided Nov. 24 not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Brown. The decision sparked violent protests, lootings and the destruction of several businesses.

Gerald Richard, an assistant to the Phoenix police chief who oversees police-community relations, said he began reaching out to community leaders after Brisbon was killed, but not because of the events in Missouri, he said.

"It is better for individuals to know the facts as opposed to be going off of rumors and hunches," Richard said. "I sincerely believe that type of communication is vital."

Tillman said he was appreciative that he was able to get a meeting with Chief Daniel Garcia as well as a call from County Attorney Bill Montgomery.

"That says something in a community when you're able to, bright and early less than 12 hours after it happened, sit down with the police chief and his top staff and communicate with the county attorney."

However, he called on the Phoenix mayor, city manager and other officials to also start a dialogue with black community members. He said he is hoping to speak with witnesses to decide whether he thinks the shooting was justified.

"That's what needs to be done, because the fact is, as we can see across this country, if we don't deal with it, we're going to keep dealing with it," Tillman said.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/rumain-brisbon-shot-killed-by-phoenix-police-officer-1.9683755

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Ohio

Justice Dept.: Cleveland police has pattern of excessive force

by Catherine E. Shoichet, Eliott C. McLaughlin and Kyung Lah

A sign you'd expect to see in a war zone, hanging at a police station. Two unarmed civilians shot more than 20 times after a high-speed chase. A man in the middle of a medical emergency, jolted with a Taser while strapped to a gurney.

These are alarming examples, federal investigators say, that show police in Cleveland have been using unnecessary and unreasonable force at a "significant rate," employing "dangerous tactics" that put the community at risk.

A report released Thursday details a nearly two-year Justice Department investigation which found that Cleveland police use guns, Tasers, pepper spray and their fists excessively, unnecessarily or in retaliation. Officers also have used excessive force on those "who are mentally ill or in crisis," the Justice Department said.

Now a federal court will keep tabs on the Cleveland police as part of a legal agreement going forward.

The Justice Department's investigation started in 2013, after several incidents, including a controversial case the previous year when more than 100 officers were involved in a high-speed chase that ended with the deaths of two unarmed civilians.

Here's a look at that case, and several others examples federal investigators pointed out in their report:

A chase gone awry: Police began chasing Timothy Russell and passenger Malissa Williams after officers and witnesses thought they heard a gunshot coming from their car as they drove by a court building. But it turns out, they didn't have weapons. The Justice Department's report said it now appears that what they heard was the car backfiring.

More than 100 officers participated in the high-speed chase. After a 25-minute chase that reached speeds of more than 100 mph and ended in a school parking lot, 13 officers fired 137 rounds hitting Russell and Williams more than 20 times each, the report said.

"The officers, who were firing on the car from all sides, reported believing that they were being fired at by the suspects. It now appears that those shots were being fired by fellow officers," the Justice Department wrote. Both Williams and Russell were killed.

Suspect kicked in the head: Video from a police helicopter captured officers arresting a man after a January 2011 police chase. After the suspect was handcuffed and lying on the ground, officers used excessive force by kicking him in the head numerous times, the report said.

Many officers were there, but none identified any fellow officers who had exacted excessive force on the suspect, and no officer was disciplined, the Justice Department said.

Accountability, or the lack thereof, was a theme of the Justice Department report. Of the period reviewed, 2010-2013, the investigation found that officers were suspended on only six occasions for improper use of force.

"Discipline is so rare that no more than 51 officers out of a sworn force of 1,500 were disciplined in any fashion in connection with a use of force incident over a three-and-a half-year period," the report said.

Taser used inside ambulance: Officers were flagged down to help a man lying on a sidewalk having seizures. When paramedics arrived, they helped him into an ambulance, where he was strapped onto a gurney. That's when the man, who the Justice Department reports identifies as "Mark," got angry, threatening the officer and trying unsuccessfully to stand up.

"Mark continued to try to stand up while threatening to beat the officer. The officer then drive stunned Mark on his top left shoulder. Mark had committed no crime, was strapped down and was in the midst of a medical crisis," the Justice Department report says.

"His repeated seizures may also have left him confused and disoriented. Indeed, there is no indication that Mark could carry out his threat against the officers, particularly when he was strapped to the gurney."

13-year-old punched: After a handcuffed 13-year-old arrested for shoplifting began to kick a police car's door and kicked an officer in the leg, the 300-pound police officer sat on the boy's legs and punched him in the face until he had a bloody nose.

The 13-year-old "was pushing against the officer with his legs, but was handcuffed and posed no threat to the officer," the Justice Department's report says, noting that Cleveland police have used excessive force on people who are handcuffed or subdued and "pose little or no threat to officers."

Sign of the times: Above a vehicle bay at one of the Cleveland Division of Police's district stations hangs a sign that reads, "forward operating base," a term usually used to describe an area of tactical operations in a war zone. The sign sends a message indicative of the community's opinion of the division, Justice Department officials said.

"This characterization reinforces the view held by some -- both inside and outside the Division -- that CDP is an occupying force instead of a true partner and resource in the community it serves," the investigative report said. It's one illustration, the Justice Department's report says, that "officer training instills in officers an 'us-against-them' mentality."

Issues resonate beyond Cleveland

The results of the federal review come as the Cleveland Division of Police is under fire for the November fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. The incident sparked even more outrage amid high tensions over Michael Brown's shooting death in Missouri and similar situations that have put police use of force under a microscope.

Cleveland police Chief Calvin Williams has defended Rice's shooting, saying he reached for an air pistol that was "indistinguishable from a real firearm."

While Thursday's announcement was set in Cleveland, Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that the problems it highlights aren't contained by city limits.

"As President Obama and I have indicated, the time has come, we think, to do even more. The tragic losses of these and far too many other Americans, including just last month, the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice here in Cleveland, have really raised urgent national questions," Holder said Thursday. "And they have sparked an important conversation about the sense of trust that must exist between law enforcement and the communities that they serve and protect."

What's next?

Authorities say Cleveland police need better training and more accountability going forward.

"Deeply troubling to us was that some of the specially trained investigators who are charged with conducting unbiased reviews of officers' use of deadly force admitted to us that they conduct their investigations with the goal of casting the accused officer in the most positive light possible," the Justice Department's report said.

The department fails to review its officers' use of force, investigate other allegations of misconduct, "respond to patterns of at-risk behavior," enforce appropriate policies and establish "effective community policing strategies," according to the Justice Department.

"Throughout the investigation, the Department of Justice provided its observations and concerns to the city, and in response, the division has begun to implement a number of remedial measures, however, much more work is needed," the department's statement said.

As a result of the findings, the city and Justice Department have signed an agreement "to develop a court-enforceable consent decree that will include a requirement for an independent monitor who will oversee and ensure necessary reforms."

Holder, Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta and U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach met Thursday with community leaders, law enforcement officials and elected officials to discuss how to improve that relationship.

"Together, we can build confidence in the division that will ensure compliance with the Constitution, improve public safety and make the job of delivering police services safer and more effective," Gupta said in a statement.

Williams told reporters his officers are committed to improving the department.

"We will work to make this police department better," he said. "I have confidence we will."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/04/us/cleveland-justice-department-police-excessive-force/

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New York

'The time for remorse was when my husband was yelling to breathe': Eric Garner's widow lashes out at NYPD cop who put her husband in fatal chokehold

Esaw Garner shouted her fiery statement during a press conference after a grand jury in Staten Island decided not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who offered his condolences to the Garner family for their loss. 'No, I do not accept his apology,' the widow said, standing next to Rev. Al Sharpton. 'I could care less about his condolences. My husband is 6 feet under.'

by Kerry Burke, Tina Moore, Thomas Tracy, Rocco Parascandola, Corky Siemaszko

Eric Garner's widow shouted two fiery words of rebuke when asked if she accepted words of condolence from the cop who killed her husband with a chokehold: “Hell no!”

Hours after the Daily News was the first to inform Esaw Garner of the grand jury's decision not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo, she clearly wanted no part of the cop.

“The time for remorse was when my husband was yelling to breathe,” she said, referring to Eric Garner's last words. “That would have been the time for him to show some remorse or some type of care for another human being's life.”

After Pantaleo was cleared by the Staten Island grand jury, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association released a statement on the cop's behalf. “I hope that they will accept my personal condolences for their loss,” he said.

Garner's widow was clear.

“No, I don't accept his apology,” she said Wednesday night at the Harlem headquarters of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network. “I could care less about his condolences. My husband is 6 feet under. (The cop) is still working. He's still collecting a paycheck and I'm looking for a way to feed my kids.”

Eric Garner with his wife, Esaw, in happier times. It's the last photo taken of the couple, she said. l

“Who's going to play Santa Claus for my grandchildren?”

After returning home from the press conference, the widow compared her husband's death “to a modern day lynching.”

As for the grand jury, she said, “They had to get 12 to agree and they probably got 12 white motherf-----s to say no.”

Hours earlier, she told The News the disturbing video of her husband in the clutches of a fatal police chokehold should have been enough for an indictment.

“I'm very disappointed,” she said, her voice rising with shock and anger. “You can see in the video that (the cop) was dead wrong!”

The doomed dad could be heard in the video saying 11 times, “I can't breathe.”

Garner's 19-year-old son, Eric Snipes, also chimed in, calling the decision “insane.”

" The grand jury needs to come talk to me and tell me why they're not indicting this guy.

That's what the grand jury needs to do. Come tell me in person why they're not indicting this guy.”

The Garners poured out their anger as:

Mayor de Blasio — who called Wednesday a “painful day for so many New Yorkers” — said he spoke with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and that the Justice Department is pushing ahead with its own probe of Pantaleo's actions.

Holder and Brooklyn federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch confirmed that a federal investigation into Garner's death will proceed. Holder said “potential federal civil rights violations” will be investigated. Lynch, who has been nominated to replace Holder, promised a “fair and thorough” probe.

Pantaleo's lawyer, Stu London, said the cop was shown at least three videos during his grand jury appearance and answered more than 20 questions.

“He indicated he used a takedown method that was taught in the academy. He was concerned about going through the plate glass window,” the lawyer said. “He indicated any contact his arm had with the neck was incidental. He never applied any pressure to the neck, nor did he intend to.”

Patrick Lynch, president of the PBA, said, “We are pleased with the grand jury's decision.”

“It is clear that the officer's intention was to do nothing more than take Mr. Garner into custody as instructed and that he used the takedown technique that he learned in the academy when Mr. Garner refused,” he said.

President Obama also weighed in.

“This is an issue we've been dealing with for too long and it's time for us to make more progress than we've made,” he said. “We're seeing too many incidences where people do not have confidence that folks are being treated fairly. When anybody in the country is not being treated equally under the law, it is my job as President to solve it.”

In Washington, the New York delegation to Congress denounced the decision as a “miscarriage of justice.”

Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, whom many black borough residents view with suspicion because of his alleged pro-cop sympathies, defended the grand jury probe and said he was barred by law from divulging the details of the panel's deliberations.

Given that this case is a matter “of special concern,” Donovan added he's asked the court to unseal some of the testimony.

The panel's decision was condemned by everyone from former Mayor David Dinkins and union leaders to Amnesty International.

“How can anyone in the community have faith in the system now?” asked Vincent Warren, head of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “First Ferguson, now Staten Island.”

But Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island), who is facing federal tax evasion charges, was one of the few city lawmakers who defended the decision. He called it “fair and reasoned.”

Staten Island Borough President James Oddo called for calm, conceding that some “will agree with the results, people and many will not."

“We are one island, one borough and ultimately, one family,” he said. “Let's act accordingly.”

“People are running up to each other saying, ‘You got a spare helmet or a belt? You got a holster?'” said one detective source.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who has vowed to crack down on any violence, was monitoring the the unfolding situation from police headquarters in Manhattan.

Earlier, Garner's visibly upset stepfather, Benjamin Carr, said the grand jury decision “don't make no sense.”

“I mean, I don't understand it,” he said. “They lock a man up for a damn dogfight. They don't lock this son of a bitch up for killing somebody.”

Carr's friend, Jose Jimenez, said the grieving stepfather broke down crying when the decision was announced.

“He was saying, ‘I hope this officer gets time in jail because of what he did to my son,'” Jimenez said. “The family is going to be suffering, they're going to be crying a lot more.”

Over in Tompkinsville, by the strip of stores where Garner was killed on July 17, two dozen protesters chanted what turned out to be some of his final words, “I can't breathe, no joke.”

Others tossed loose cigarettes on the ground and stomped on them — a reference to the so-called loosies Garner was peddling when cops stopped him.

“There is no justice,” said a furious 47-year-old Jeanette Johnson. “There will never be peace with us and the police. Ever.”

Jamillah Rivera, 25, said she saw Garner get wrestled to the ground and remembers the contempt Pantaleo showed them when they complained.

“The cop stuck up his middle finger to all of us,” she said. “He thought it was a big joke. How does someone like that go free?”

“All over America, cops are getting away with this,” added 22-year-old Demetri Green. “They're the real gang in New York City. They're the real gang in this county.”

Garner, a 43-year-old father of six, was killed when Pantaleo subdued him with a banned chokehold.

Police said they approached Garner because he was selling unlicensed cigarettes and resisted arrest. They noted that Garner's rap sheet listed 31 arrests, beginning when he was 16.

But Garner's death sparked national outrage after the video of his deadly encounter with police was published by The News.

It later drew comparisons to Ferguson, Mo., where another black man — unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown — was killed in August by another white cop. And there was mayhem in that Missouri town last week when a local grand jury declined to indict Officer Darren Wilson.

Pantaleo, 29, an eight-year veteran of the force, was yanked off the street while Donovan and the Civilian Complaint Review Board launched probes. The medical examiner's office later ruled Garner's death a homicide.

Pantaleo testified for more than two hours before the grand jury, answering more than 20 questions, sources said. But after four months of reviewing the evidence, a majority on the panel concluded there was not enough there to charge Pantaleo with manslaughter, reckless endangerment or criminally negligent homicide.

The 23-member grand jury, sources said, was comprised of 14 whites, with the rest being black or Hispanic.

Pantaleo is also being investigated by the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau and faces possible departmental charges that could end his career. He remains on modified duty and has been warned to stay out of sight for his own safety, sources said.

The half-dozen officers who were with Pantaleo when he killed Garner, including a female sergeant, will also be investigated by Internal Affairs, sources said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-eric-garner-chokehold-death-not-indicted-article-1.2031841

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New York

Protests follow no indictment in NYPD chokehold case

by NBC News

A large crowd of protesters took over a section of Manhattan's West Side Highway and were in a standoff with police Wednesday evening, hours after a grand jury declined to indict a white police officer in the death of an unarmed black man on Staten Island earlier this summer — in a case that was recorded on video and showed the dead man crying "I can't breathe."

A crowd estimated to number more than 100 was on the highway and were seen being pushed north by a line of police officers wearing helmets and armed with batons at around 9:30 p.m. At least six protesters were seen detained with plastic restraints, and shouted out their names as they were taken into custody.

Protesters also staged a "die-in" in the main concourse of Grand Central Terminal and crowds earlier voiced their anger over the grand jury's decision in Times Square.

"I'm outraged," John Grauwiler, 44, said as he joined protests in Times Square. "As a man of color, I'm concerned about the implications of this for me and my friends. I thought the turnout would be different, but this is a wake-up call."

A grand jury on Wednesday declined to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, 43, who died after being placed in a chokehold while being arrested for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes on Staten Island on July 17. The incident was captured on video, in which Garner can be heard telling officers "I can't breathe" as he was being restrained.

"I can't breathe" became a rallying cry as crowds gathered in Times Square. Protesters also held their hands up — referencing the death in Ferguson, Missouri, of Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer who was also not indicted — and held signs reading "Black Lives Matter."

Others in the crowd chanted, "NYPD, KKK, how many kids did you kill today?" "

"I grew up in the '60s and '70s, we fought to have justice and 40 years later we still don't have justice in this country," said protester Walter Cooper, 65. "I'm very frustrated and upset.

Protesters like Doug Brinson said the decision not to indict was an insult.

"No to indict the man is like a double slap in your face," Brinson told NBC New York. "It's like stomping you down on the ground."

"A murderer was caught on camera, and for whatever reason they [the grand jury] decided to let a murder go free, and this keeps happening," said protester Adina Bloom, 25, as she marched with others to the Rockefeller Christmas Tree lighting from Times Square. "I don't understand how much more evidence one has to present to face consequences. What more could we have done to show the people of the court a murder occurred?"

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102237839

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Deep divides in ways to fix community police relations

Activists, experts and rights advocates fail to see eye to eye on ways to implement community policing

by Wilson Dizard

Michael Brown's death at the hands of the police officer Darren Wilson this summer has amplified calls for better police relations with the communities they serve. But recommendations for improved community policing methods can be as numerous as the complaints levied against current law enforcement tactics.

Some civil rights advocates say that states and cities should partially defund police agencies. Transfer the money to jobs and schools, they say, to decrease incentives for crime. But criminal justice analysts contend that communities must take responsibility for the social ills that law enforcement cannot mend. Most, however, agree on one point: the relationship between police and residents is broken and needs repair.

“There are many ways to address the social problems around crime, and police need to think more broadly than arrests and tickets and stops,” said Darius Charney, a staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights who represented some of the plaintiffs in a successful lawsuit against the New York Police Department's stop-and-frisk policy.

Charney pointed to a 2009 Justice Department study that highlighted three principles of community policing. Principally, police officers must try to solve problems without using arrest or force as a first resort. Officers must also engage community members as active participants in the policing of their neighborhoods. Police departments, according to the DOJ study, should democratize their command structures and give officers more flexibility in the field.

But these measures don't go far enough, according to Joe Giacalone, an adjunct professor of criminal justice at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a retired NYPD detective sergeant. “You should have another job before you're allowed to become a police officer,” said Giacalone.

Complaints against police departments will decrease along with crime rates if police recruiters set higher standards like requiring a college degree and several years of work experience, says Giacalone. Many police agencies across the country, for example, only require that cadets have a high school diploma or GED certificate. Longer work histories, argues Giacalone, will give officers experience in dealing with the public and alongside people who might not look or speak like them.

Most importantly, though, Giacalone believes police forces should reflect the communities they serve. “The number one thing that a police department must do is they must make an effort to recruit minority officers,” said Giacalone. “The department must look at the demographics of the society they're policing.” Giacalone pointed to a successful model in Manhattan, where Chinese-speaking police officers work in the precinct encompassing Chinatown. Other cities, such as San Francisco, do this as well.

Giacalone speaks from experience as police officer, but he is not alone in saying departments should bolster the number of minorities in their ranks.

The NAACP in September started offering a scholarship to help fund police training courses for African Americans who want to become cops in Grand Rapids, Mich. Departments across the country rarely reflect the demographics of the communities they serve, a Washington Post survey found , especially in small towns.

For Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the activist group #blacklivesmatter, a solution to the discord between officers and the communities they police lies in giving less money to police departments.

“Police departments need to be significantly defunded,” said Cullors. “We can't keep pouring money into our police departments as our only way for public safety. Public safety means people having good jobs, people having a place to live, people having access to healthy food.”

Cullors' group is pushing for a civilian oversight review board for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department — similar to the one established by the Los Angeles Police Department in the wake of deadly riots that followed the acquittal of white police officers in the beating of Rodney King.

“Law enforcement doesn't keep communities safe,” said Cullors. “It subjugates and represses and locks people up.”

Brendan Kolding, an adjunct criminal justice professor at Argosy University near Seattle, believes that the crux of good police work is fairness to citizens. Officers, he says, need to take the time to explain what they're doing and why. “People react well to having things explained them to them,” said Kolding.

Police officers, says Kolding, could cite case law or Supreme Court precedent in justifying a traffic stop or the restraining of a suspect. In this way, interactions between police and residents mirror a “customer service” relationship. An individual whose taxes pay an officer's salary should receive respect from cops, making it more likely they won't hesitate to call a police department if they witness to a crime.

But there are limits to how gentle police work can be, warned Kolding. Some people living in communities that see police violence on a regular basis question why cops pull their guns instead of using less lethal tasers.

“Tasers only work about half the time,” Kolding said, adding that the media don't present a fair picture of what cops do every day. “For every ugly video or questionable use of force, you have 25, 30 or 50 heartwarming stories of positive interactions that are there. But there's not that media sex appeal.”

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/12/3/community-policing.html

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Obama taps Ramsey to help lead national task force on community policing

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey has been selected to co-chair a national task force aimed at strengthening the bonds between cops and the communities they swear to protect.

The Task Force on 21st Century Policing is expected to come up with recommendations for police departments around the country to improve their relationships with residents. President Barack Obama announced Ramsey's appointment in the wake of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, who was not charged in the slaying.

"I think the time is right," said Ramsey. "I think with everything going on right now, it has the attention of the community, the attention of police, the attention of elected officials, media. Everyone who needs to be focused on this is focused on it."

Laurie Robinson, a George Mason University professor and a former assistant U.S. attorney general, was tapped to serve on the task force along with Ramsey.

In Philadelphia, a pilot program to equip a small number of police officers with body cameras is already under way, Ramsey said.

"It's going to go a long way toward making sure that we have an accurate record of what takes place whenever officers do have encounters out there in the field," he said. "It's a protection for the officers. It's a protection for the community."

Ramsey hopes to eventually supply 3,500 city cops with body cameras.

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/75850-obama-taps-ramsey-to-help-lead-national-task-force-on-community-policing-?linktype=hp_impact

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Indiana

Community policing march, rally Sunday in Fort Wayne

by The News Sentinel staff

In light of recent events in Ferguson, Mo., local organizations are planning an event to increase awareness and commitment for community and police partnerships, according to a news release from the UAW Local 2209 Civil Rights Committee.

The Journey for Justice: Community Policing March and Rally is 2-4 p.m. Sunday starting at the north end of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge. Participants will march to the Allen County Courthouse at the corner of Clinton and Berry streets. Representatives of various community organizations and municipal officials will speak on current policies and practices and recommendations for the future.

Participating organizations include UAW Local 2209 Civil Rights Committee; Fort Wayne Urban League; Crimestoppers; the Rev. Bill McGill, senior pastor, Imani Temple; Rick Stevenson, Wayne Township Trustee; Glynn Hines Fort Wayne City Councilman, 6th District; Kevin Howell, Allen County councilman, 1st District; and Sharon Tucker, Allen County council member, 1st District-elect.

According to the news release, "there is a need for communities and police departments to come together and review/revise/implement strategies to collectively ensure neighborhood confidence and safety for all our citizens."

http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20141203/NEWS/141209878/1005/SPORTS01

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Texas

Temple ministers, NAACP want more community police

by Grant Hermes

TEMPLE - On the steps of the Corinth Baptist Church in Temple, members of the NAACP and Temple Area Ministers made a call to police and the city that they want more community officers in their neighborhoods through a Department of Justice grant program.

At the press conference Tuesday, the groups said they see what they called racial profiling and injustice in Temple, linking much of it to similarities they see in Ferguson, Missouri. They said they would like to see the city bring back the Community Oriented Policing Services program.

The COPS program is a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. It grants police forces money, allowing them to hire officers that would be able to patrol districts and neighborhoods. The ministers believe having community officers would decrease a culture of fear around police and help bring better understanding between officers and residents, especially residents of color.

"We must to stand together, black white and brown to seek equality and justice for everyone," said Dr. U.C. Barnes from Corinth Baptist Church.

The Temple Police Department moved away from community oriented policing, according to Lt. Brad Hunt of TPD. The department moved to problem oriented policing in the early 2000's, but has been moving back towards community policing in the last year. He said being able to walk in neighborhoods makes a big difference in perceptions, or misconceptions, of officers and how they do their jobs.

"We want to have that kind of communications with the community," Hunt said. "We want to be able to see folks day and night who can tell us what the problems are."

Hunt said it's encouraging to know groups like the NAACP and Temple Area Ministers want officers back in their neighborhoods. He added the department has applied for the grant before, most recently in 2008. But with a low crime rate and the great recession, the force did not meet requirements for the money. Hunt said the police force is open to re-applying for the grant to continue to move back to more community oriented policing.

http://www.kxxv.com/story/27531573/temple-ministers-naacp-want-more-community-police

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New York

Another white cop, another dead black male; another grand jury decides

by Ben Brumfield, Dominique Debucquoy-Dodley and Shimon Prokupecz

Confronted by police trying to arrest him for allegedly selling illegal cigarettes, Eric Garner raised both hands in the air and, with passive defiance, told the officers not to touch him. Seconds later, a video shows the officer behind him grab the 350-pound man in a chokehold and pull him to the sidewalk, rolling him onto his stomach.

"I can't breathe! I can't breathe!" Garner said repeatedly, his cries muffled into the pavement.

The video of the Thursday skirmish shows the Staten Island man lying on the ground motionless after the incident. An asthmatic, Garner was later declared dead at a nearby hospital, according to CNN affiliate WCBS. Police said he suffered a heart attack and died en route to the hospital.

"This is a terrible tragedy that occurred yesterday. A terrible tragedy that no family should have to experience," said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, calling the video of the incident "very troubling."

Police told WCBS that 43-year-old Garner, a father of six, had a lengthy criminal history and had been previously arrested for selling untaxed cigarettes in May.

Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who is seen on video choking Garner, was put on modified assignment and stripped of his shield and gun as the New York Police Department continues to investigate the incident, WCBS reported. The chokehold tactic is prohibited by the NYPD.

Two EMTs and two paramedics have been suspended without pay, Erika Hellstrom, vice president of development at Richmond University Medical Center, said in an e-mail.

In a statement, Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch called Pantaleo's reassignment "a completely unwarranted, kneejerk reaction for political reasons." He said the move "effectively pre-judges this case and denies the officer the very benefit of a doubt that has long been part of the social contract that allows police officers to face the risks of this difficult and complex job."

On Saturday, Garner's friends and family rallied alongside the Rev. Al Sharpton in Upper Manhattan, demanding a full investigation into Garner's death, according to WCBS.

Garner's wife was set to speak at the rally but found herself too emotional, WCBS reported.

New York photographer Joel Graham was at Saturday's demonstration, which lasted for two hours. He shared his photographs with CNN iReport, and says he captured them while walking alongside protesters who traveled from New Brighton Church to the store where the chokehold incident took place.

This crowd was composed of good, well-meaning people who understood that peace was the only option and were adamant that things remain calm over Eric's death. I have been to protests that have been violent, but this crowd reflected who Eric was," he said.

Graham, an area resident, had a familiar relationship with Garner. "I am an urban art photographer, and I will talk to everyone on the streets of New York City," he said, explaining that he would occasionally chat with Garner while taking photos near the Staten Island Ferry.

"I had empathy for Eric and how he must have felt trying to catch his breath, and sympathy for the family. This was a heartfelt emotional protest because everyone loved Eric," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/03/justice/new-york-grand-jury-chokehold/

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Indiana

Gary mayor meets with Obama on community policing

by The Times Staff

GARY -- Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson met with President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday as part of a national discussion on improving relationships between law enforcement and residents.

"We discussed the fact that we must be committed to changing policy in a way that positively impacts people's lives while giving law enforcement officers the training, tools and support needed to do an effective job on behalf of citizens," Freeman-Wilson said in a statement issued Tuesday.

"We agreed that both law enforcement officers and community members have a right to expect to go home to their families at the end of the day and to suggest strategies around community policing, responsible use of the 1033 program (which provides surplus military equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies) and the utility of technology to aid law enforcement and citizens alike."

Freeman-Wilson said the group of elected officials, civil rights activities, faith leaders, law enforcement and administration officials, "gathered with a mind to work and with the understanding that if we are diligent, our work has the potential to positively impact lives and change the course of this country."

Obama called for the meeting following the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., after a grand jury did not indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed teen Michael Brown.

"While we understand the gravity of the all of the circumstances related to the lives and deaths of Michael Brown and too many other like him, we are confident that by working under clear guidance provided by the president, we can improve the state of police/community relations in this country and peel away at the layers of poverty and its by-products," Freeman-Wilson said.

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/gary-mayor-meets-with-obama-on-community-policing/article_ef65ef48-6775-50cc-90fb-36f90ba372c3.html

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Massachusetts

Editorial

Community policing in the 21st century

If any good may come out of the continuing explosive situation in Ferguson, Missouri, and nationwide, it is that the demands for police accountability and equal justice under the law spreading nationwide have reached the highest echelons of the U.S. government. With action coming from Washington, hopefully the tensions can begin to subside.

On Monday, following a meeting with police, community and faith leaders, President Barack Obama announced steps his administration is immediately taking to build trust between police and minority communities and create a Task Force on 21st Century Policing to study strategies that have worked in communities nationwide and issue recommendations for the federal government to support those goals.

But actions speak louder than words and task forces are not always known for creating action, which the president himself acknowledged on Monday. That's why it's good to see some action also coming from the administration to immediately address the issues at hand. “Part of the reason this time will be different is because the president of the United States is deeply invested in making sure that this time is different,” Obama said on Monday.

While Obama said his administration supports maintaining the controversial federal programs that provide military style equipment to local police departments, he expressed concern about a “militarized culture” in law enforcement. The administration is planning measures to strike a better balance between properly equipping police departments for dangerous situations and ensuring such equipment does not only escalate tensions.

To that end, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that in the coming days, the Justice Department will be updating its guidance on racial profiling by federal law enforcement agents. It has also launched an investigation into the Ferguson Police Department and is probing possible civil rights violations in connection with the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. But any federal charges would require a rigorous standard of proof. And proof is in short supply because there are conflicting accounts of what happened that day.

Those conflicting reports could have been settled had officer Darren Wilson been wearing a body camera. Had Wilson been wearing a camera, there would have been irrefutable evidence for the grand jury to consider and the controversy would have been settled in the court of public opinion. That's why it makes sense that Obama is proposing a $263 million plan to increase the use of body-worn cameras, expand police training and add more resources for police department reform nationwide. The package would provide $75 million to help pay for 50,000 body cameras for police across the country, with state and local governments paying half.

While it's a good start and police body cameras make sense to protect the interests of justice and accountability, it's unclear whether that federal contribution will be enough for struggling state and local governments to absorb the rest of the expense in the form of an unfunded mandate. Meanwhile, there are estimated to be 700,000 law enforcement personnel nationwide, so only a fraction would be outfitted with the cameras through this proposal. The process by which officers and departments would receive funding for this use will need to be clarified.

Certainly, the problems that have caused the violent response in Ferguson have long been lingering and they extend far beyond Ferguson, Missouri. The scales of justice must be brought into better balance. The Obama administration's actions, while preliminary, are a step in the right direction toward keeping the peace and rebuilding the broken trust between police and communities nationwide.

http://www.heraldnews.com/article/20141202/OPINION/141209179

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North Carolina

Fayetteville residents seek answers on improving police, community relations

by Andrew Barksdale

At a meeting Tuesday night, Kurin Keys stood and said he is a father and a small business owner in Fayetteville. He then asked officials in the room how they would bring the community and police together to fight crime.

"We need more community relations, or preventative efforts," the 37-year-old said. "Because if my son is already dead on the ground, I don't want to be here because I'm disgusted."

Keys had brought three of his seven children to the Smith Recreation Center, off Langdon Street, to hear officials with the U.S. Department of Justice and Fayetteville's Police Chief Harold Medlock explain how they plan to improve police training, boost community relations and collaborate better with churches and other faith-based organizations.

Jessica Herbert, who works for the Justice Department's Diagnostic Center, told Keys that the federal program will seek to improve the coordination of policing strategies with the public.

"It's a community problem, and everyone plays a role to some extent at being part of that solution," Herbert said.

"And it can't be just reliant on the Police Department, to throw an Empowerment Day, when we have 135 churches and three higher academic institutions in this city," she said. "You have a ton of resources available to you."

Medlock said the Diagnostic Center's goal is "to help us try to repair relationships and start to build trust" with residents.

After Medlock invited the federal review earlier this year, consultants with the Justice Department presented their recommendations to the City Council on Monday and held Tuesday's meeting at a recreation center where they did much of their research interviewing more than 200 residents.

Stephen Rickman, one of the consultants, said Tuesday the Justice Department will help Fayetteville police develop a crime-fighting plan for one or two neighborhoods next year. The plan will involve input from a variety of residents, business owners and churches in those communities.

"It's an advanced model of community policing," Rickman said. "I have seen this work in other places."

The communities have not been chosen yet, but Medlock said he hopes to identify by the end of this month a list of prospective neighborhoods to be in the pilot program.

About 75 people attended the meeting, including police and Councilmen Jim Arp, Chalmers McDougald and Larry Wright.

The consultants interviewed 47 people ages 16 to 34 in the Murchison Road area. Wright, who lives near the Seventy-First schools in western Fayetteville, said he wished they would interview people where he lives.

"We've had a number of shootings over there in that area, and crime seems to be rising to some degree," Wright said.

Herbert said there are no plans to do more interviews, which is time-consuming and likely wouldn't yield any new information.

Medlock said violent crime totals across the city are down 9.3 percent in the first 11 months of this year, compared with the same period last year.

The Smith Recreation Center is in McDougald's 4th District. So is Bonnie Doone, historically a trouble spot for police.

"I have some neighborhoods that I think would be ideal for this project," McDougald said.

http://www.fayobserver.com/news/crime_courts/fayetteville-residents-seek-answers-on-improving-police-community-relations/article_3c25169a-bd35-5bb0-a14e-a393f5b1294d.html

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Nebraska

Inmate furloughs helped public safety and state's budget, ex-Corrections chief Houston says

by Joe Duggan

LINCOLN — Nebraska officials identified 40 million reasons to justify increasing the number of prison inmates released on parole and long-term furlough.

Bob Houston, former director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, said this week that he supported greater use of the programs to help address chronic prison overcrowding. He and others were motivated to delay the substantial cost of operating and maintaining a new prison.

“We were trying everything we could to push off as far into the future building an institution,” he said. “Every year we don't build an institution, we save at least $40 million a year in operating costs.”

But Houston said saving state tax dollars was just one reason he pushed for the early supervised release of inmates, including those with violent histories. Houston argued that furlough and parole can improve public safety because the programs help inmates avoid crime once they've regained their freedom.

Others have sharply questioned the use of furloughs.

A number of judges have said they were unaware that furloughs were being used or that they were being offered to inmates who committed violent crimes. Prosecutors in Douglas, Sarpy and Lancaster Counties also have criticized furloughs for essentially cutting sentences ordered by the courts. They argued that judges should decide the length of a prison term, not the Corrections Department.

State Sen. Steve Lathrop, chairman of the committee investigating the state prison scandal, has said furloughs should be discontinued or reinvented by the Legislature.

The long-term furlough program, launched in 2008 as a way to transition nonviolent inmates back into their communities, was later expanded and made available to those with violent convictions. About 140 of the 1,000 inmates placed on furlough over the past six years were convicted of violent offenses ranging from domestic assault to second-degree murder.

The furlough program was created behind closed doors and run without the public agendas and open hearings that accompany Parole Board actions. Houston, who led Corrections for eight years before his 2013 retirement, said he relied on the department's legal counsel, who determined that he had the authority to furlough inmates.

He pointed out that the furlough program involves more intensive supervision than parole.

Houston said staff members conducted risk assessments to determine which inmates qualified for furloughs. Those classified as low-risk, even if they were serving time for violent offenses, could qualify for furlough, he said. Some inmates serving prison terms for nonviolent offenses graded out as high-risk and were not placed in the program, he said.

Although Corrections recommended certain inmates for furlough, the Parole Board also provided oversight.

“The Parole Board signed off on every furlough,” Houston said. “The Parole Board can't distance themselves from furlough because they signed off on every one.”

Houston said research shows that inmates who eventually will be released do better under community supervision programs that help them hold employment, obtain support services and reconnect with family members.

As a nearly 40-year veteran of Corrections, Houston recalled how the department was criticized for not doing enough to maximize existing prison capacity before the $74 million Tecumseh prison was built in 2001. A recent consultant's report said the state can start fixing the overcrowding problem by adding 1,100 beds spread out over three facilities at a cost of $199.2 million.

The efforts made by Corrections over the final years of Houston's tenure show that officials were using every program available to extend the system's capacity and protect public safety, he said.

“That's a whole different mindset than scrambling around trying to push inmates out of cells,” he said. “That's not what we were doing.”

http://www.omaha.com/news/metro/inmate-furloughs-helped-public-safety-and-state-s-budget-ex/article_85efb3e6-51ab-554c-aed0-2c7fc4a8ea0a.html

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Washington

Police militarization: The Ferguson issue that wasn't

by Evan Perez

Washington (CNN) -- Police militarization — the issue that briefly united conservatives and liberals over Ferguson — has turned out to be a dud.

A White House review suggests largely leaving intact federal programs that provide surplus military equipment to local police departments. President Barack Obama ordered the review after widely criticized heavy-handed police response to August protests following the shooting of Michael Brown. A report released by the White House on Monday suggested making improvements to the programs, to standardize training and better track equipment.

But the White House response falls short of wholesale changes that some suggested should be made after police deployed military-style vehicles on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, after the Brown shooting.

Efforts in Congress to rein in the programs have also fizzled.

The White House report concluded: "These programs, in the main, have been valuable and have provided state and local law enforcement with needed assistance as they carry out their critical missions in helping to keep the American people safe."

Between 2009 and 2014, the federal government has provided nearly $18 billion in funds and resources to support programs that provide equipment and tactical resources to state and local law enforcement. The vast majority of that money goes to back office equipment, with only 4 percent of property going to heavier, more controlled equipment.

Police tactical units in recent years have taken to wearing camouflage and some agencies have received heavy-duty battlefield vehicles known as MRAPs, an acronym for Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.

What many saw as militarization, some law enforcement officials say, was what has come to be standard gear used by SWAT teams, which aren't routinely deployed on civilian streets.

Some law enforcement officials say that instead of focusing on equipment, more attention should be paid to police training.

Justice Department officials have pushed for improved training for St. Louis-area police agencies, moving away from "warrior" tendencies and toward being "guardians" for communities that police serve.

The White House report released Monday suggested standardizing training for police to respect civil rights and liberties.

The president plans to issue an executive order to tighten some of the controls over the programs to better track equipment provided to law enforcement agencies. The White House also plans to boost funding to pay for 50,000 body cameras for police officers.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/01/politics/ferguson-police-militarization-white-house

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From the White House

FACT SHEET: Strengthening Community Policing

Recent events in Ferguson, Missouri and around the country have highlighted the importance of strong, collaborative relationships between local police and the communities they protect. As the nation has observed, trust between law enforcement agencies and the people they protect and serve is essential to the stability of our communities, the integrity of our criminal justice system, and the safe and effective delivery of policing services.

In August, President Obama ordered a review of federal funding and programs that provide equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies (LEAs). Today, the Obama Administration released its Review: Federal Support for Local Law Enforcement Equipment Acquisition, and the President is also taking a number of steps to strengthen community policing and fortify the trust that must exist between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve.

White House Review: Federal Support for Local Law Enforcement Equipment Acquisition

Today, the White House released its review which provides details on the programs that have expanded over decades across multiple federal agencies that support the acquisition of equipment from the federal government to LEAs. During the course of its review, the White House explored whether existing federal programs:

provide LEAs with equipment that is appropriate to the needs of their communities,

ensure that LEAs have adequate policies in place for the use of the equipment and that personnel are properly trained and certified to employ the equipment they obtain, and

encourage LEAs to adopt organizational and operational practices and standards that prevent misuse/abuse of the equipment.

The report finds a lack of consistency in how federal programs are structured, implemented and audited, and informed by conversations with stakeholders, identifies four areas of further focus that could better ensure the appropriate use of federal programs to maximize the safety and security of police officers and the communities they serve: 1) Local Community Engagement, 2) Federal Coordination and Oversight, 3) Training Requirements, and 4) The Community Policing Model.

Consistent with the recommendations in the report, the President instructed his staff to draft an Executive Order directing relevant agencies to work together and with law enforcement and civil rights and civil liberties organizations to develop specific recommendations within 120 days. Some broad examples of what process improvements agencies might implement as a result of further collaborative review include:

•  Develop a consistent list of controlled property allowable for acquisition by LEAs and ensure that all equipment on the list has a legitimate civilian law enforcement purpose.

•  Require local civilian (non-police) review of and authorization for LEAs to request or acquire controlled equipment.

•  Mandate that LEAs which participate in federal equipment programs receive necessary training and have policies in place that address appropriate use and employment of controlled equipment, as well as protection of civil rights and civil liberties. Agencies should identify existing training opportunities and help LEAs avail themselves of those opportunities, including those offered by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) and the International Association of Law Enforcement Standards and Training.

•  Require after-action analysis reports for significant incidents involving federally provided or federally-funded equipment.

•  Harmonize federal programs so that they have consistent and transparent policies.

•  Develop a database that includes information about controlled equipment purchased or acquired through Federal programs.

Task Force on 21st Century Policing

The President similarly instructed his team to draft an executive order creating a Task Force on 21st Century Policing, and announced that the Task Force will be chaired by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, who also serves as President of the Major Cities Chiefs Police Association, and Laurie Robinson, professor at George Mason University and former Assistant Attorney General for DOJ's Office of Justice Programs. The Task Force will include, among others, law enforcement representatives and community leaders and will operate in collaboration with Ron Davis, Director of DOJ's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office. The Task Force will build on the extensive research currently being conducted by COPS; will examine, among other issues, how to promote effective crime reduction while building public trust; and will be directed to prepare a report and recommendations within 90 days of its creation.

Community Policing Initiative

The President also proposes a three-year $263 million investment package that will increase use of body-worn cameras, expand training for law enforcement agencies (LEAs), add more resources for police department reform, and multiply the number of cities where DOJ facilitates community and local LEA engagement. As part of this initiative, a new Body Worn Camera Partnership Program would provide a 50 percent match to States/localities who purchase body worn cameras and requisite storage. Overall, the proposed $75 million investment over three years could help purchase 50,000 body worn cameras. The initiative as a whole will help the federal government efforts to be a full partner with state and local LEAs in order to build and sustain trust between communities and those who serve and protect these communities.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/01/fact-sheet-strengthening-community-policing

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Florida

When communities resent police, trouble is inevitable

by Jonah Goldberg

On Tuesday, the day after it was announced that Officer Darren Wilson would not be charged in the slaying of Michael Brown, the president for a second time called for calm. His statement was measured, careful and responsible. He condemned violence and looting while acknowledging the legitimate concerns animating the protesters. He wasn't all that moving or eloquent, but this might have been one of those times when swinging for the rhetorical fences wasn't what the moment needed.

One theme he hit repeatedly, and correctly, was that the passions of many protesters are rooted in something very real. The "frustrations that we've seen are not just about a particular incident," Obama said. "They have deep roots in many communities of color who have a sense that our laws are not always being enforced uniformly or fairly."

There's no doubt that is true. As John McWhorter writes in Time magazine, "The key element in the Brown-Wilson encounter was not any specific action either man took — it was the preset hostility to the cops that Brown apparently harbored." Officer Wilson made a legitimate request of Brown. Brown, in turn, saw no legitimacy in it and behaved recklessly.

In a community where cops are feared, resented or reviled, it's almost inevitable that bad things will happen when cops try to do their job, even if they do everything by the book. Moreover, to simply say that the resentment of the police is unwarranted does nothing to solve the problem. People forget that for a brief moment in August, the protests turned peaceful and law-abiding when Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, an African-American from Ferguson with credibility in the neighborhood, was put in charge of policing the protests.

Eventually, thanks in large part to an influx of professional agitators, rabble-rousers and opportunists — attracted to television cameras like ambulance chasers to a bus accident — the protests got out of hand again. But that moment was instructive.

Now, if you've been following the news lately — and by lately, I mean the last several years, or even decades — none of this is particularly shocking. Friction between police departments and minority communities has been part of the national conversation on race (that liberals insist hasn't been going on) for as long as I can remember. The New York Times has been regularly covering that beat for at least half a century. It's a major theme of movies and music. It's a huge profit center for Al Sharpton, who doesn't lack for influence or microphones.

And while I have no respect whatsoever for Sharpton, I do think the issue is real. President Obama is right about that.

But what's left out of the narrative that drives so much of the national conversation are the other real experiences of other Americans. On MSNBC, particularly last August, the discussion of Michael Brown — much like Trayvon Martin before him — has been almost entirely abstract. Brown wasn't a person who allegedly robbed a convenience store. He was a stand-in for racial injustice. That's what was so powerful about Brown's (probably mythological) "hands up" gesture.

The outrage that followed when the convenience store robbery video was released and details from the grand jury were leaked was at least in part fury at having the narrative muddied. No one likes to see fresh gospel fact-checked. No one wants to hear that their martyr was in fact no angel. And, in the case of Wilson, no one wants to see their demon humanized.

My point here isn't to "blame the victim" — or even assign blame in this tragic nationalized game of Rashomon. It's simply to note that there is a huge chasm between the way the talking heads and politicians talk about America and the way Americans actually live their lives. Most people aren't lawyers or academic theorizers. The people we interact with on a daily basis aren't abstractions, they're normal human beings, which means they're a mixed bag. In the nightly shouting match, for instance, we're told immigration is all This or all That. But in our lives we see the good and the bad.

The national media — on the right and left — has an insatiable desire for storylines so clear-cut they might as well be allegories. The problem is that life isn't allegorical. It's messy.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-ed-jonah-goldberg-113014-20141129-column.html

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Minnesota

Racine native hoping to start Community Oriented Policing houses in Minnesota

by LEE B. ROBERTS

ST. CLOUD, MINNESOTA — Inspired by the success of Racine's COP houses, police officer Dan McClure is working to start a similar program in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

A Racine native who has served with the St. Cloud Police Department for about seven years, McClure has seen the positive impact that Community Oriented Policing houses have had in reducing crime in neighborhoods here. And he believes such houses will also help the city of St. Cloud deal with its crime issues.

While St. Cloud is slightly smaller than Racine (it has about 66,000 residents) and has somewhat less crime, it has similar issues ranging from burglaries and juvenile crimes to assaults, McClure said.

“The need is definitely there,” said the 1998 Park High School graduate. “And COP houses would be another step in working to address those issues.”

McClure pitched the COP house idea to St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson and, in early October, they both came to Racine to visit some of the city's six houses. They spent a day meeting with RPD officers — including former Police Chief Richard Polzin, who initiated Racine's COP houses — and learning about the city's Community Oriented Policing programs, McClure said.

“The representatives from Racine's COP houses and the other officers we worked with were outstanding,” he said. “I feel like we made a really good connection between departments.”

It is a relationship McClure said he hopes to continue as the St. Cloud Police Department moves toward opening its first COP house.

Right now, he said his department is in the process of obtaining a house in one of St. Cloud's troubled neighborhoods. Currently in foreclosure and unoccupied, it is a house the department is familiar with through the many previous police calls to that address for crimes ranging from burglary to shootings.

“The bottom line is to obtain the house and get the ball rolling,” he said. “From there, we can get the other pieces put in place.”

McClure said Anderson is working on developing funding sources for St. Cloud's COP house program. And, that his department is interested in developing a nonprofit foundation for support, similar to the Racine Community Outpost that owns Racine's COP houses.

http://journaltimes.com/news/local/racine-native-hoping-to-start-community-oriented-policing-houses-in/article_a8b26fcb-c9ec-58d4-84e8-24d191dc7162.html

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Police chiefs: Law enforcement must learn from Ferguson

by Alexander Bolton

Current and former police chiefs of the nation's major metropolitan areas say law enforcement agencies around the nation must not repeat the mistakes that led to riots in Ferguson, Mo.

Former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik and deputy Dallas police chief Malik Aziz on Sunday criticized the police response to social unrest in Ferguson and said it failed to anticipate a volatile situation.

“There was actually a peaceful protest and they came out, I think, aggressively, too aggressively,” Kerik said on CNN's "State of the Union" of the police response to the first night of social protests after Michael Brown, a black teenager, was shot in killed in Ferguson.

“In the aftermath, when it wasn't a protest and it was an outright riot, I think they could have been more aggressive,” he said.

They said Ferguson and other police departments around the nation need to embrace community policing strategies to build better relationships and tamp down tensions.

“You have to either step up to the plate and believe in a real and true community policing philosophy or you get left behind,” Aziz, who is also chairman of the National Black Police Association, said.

“That's what you see in Ferguson,” he added. “The inability to get out front. Failing to get out front. Failing to build community relations. Failing to let the public know at hand what actually occurred.”

He said the failure of local police to anticipate that a candlelight vigil in Ferguson could turn violent hampered their response.

Kerik said one of the major lessons from Ferguson is the importance of smooth communication between police forces and communities.

“The key is a dialogue with the community, the real community leaders,” he said, noting that many of the incidents of shootings, arson and burglary in Ferguson were committed by people who were not local residents.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/225530-police-chiefs-law-enforcement-must-learn-from-ferguson

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Former N.Y. and N.O. Mayors on Race and Crime, Police Diversity and Ferguson Response

by Bridget Johnson

Though he supports the decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told Fox News Sunday that he believes African-Americans have a legitimate complaint about racial discrimination by police.

Host Chris Wallace cited polling that found 70 percent of African-Americans saying they feel treated less fairly than police treat whites, while 37 percent of whites said blacks are treated less fairly by cops.

“I do believe that there is more interaction and more unfair interaction among police officers, white and black, in the black community than in a white community. And I think some of that responsibility is on the police department. And on police departments to train their police officers better and to make their police departments much more diversified,” Giuliani said.

“But I think just as much if not more responsibility is on the black community to reduce the reason why the police officers are assigned in such large numbers to the black community. It's because blacks commit murder eight times more per capita than any other group in our society.”

Giuliani said during his time in office he assigned police by statistics. “If I put all my police officers on Park Avenue and none in Harlem, thousands and thousands more blacks would have killed during the eight years that I was mayor,” he said.

“…If you want to work on the problem, you've got to work on both sides. When the president talked about training, he talked about training police. I'm all with him. Train the police and make them better. I tried it hard, we have a diverse police department in New York. You got to work on the other side of it, too. This is not a one-sided story and it is presented always as a one-sided story.”

Marc Morial, president of the Urban League and mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002, stressed in response to Giuliani that “about 84 percent of all whites are murdered by other whites.”

“And the concern about violence in the black community is pervasive. The advocacy, the rallies, the events that take place, it should be no mistake that black on black violence is not tolerated in the black community,” Morial told Fox.

The protests, he said, are due in large part to “the fact that we've had five high-profile incidents in this country in a short period of time, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Marlene Pinnock out in Los Angeles and now, the young boy down in — out in Cleveland. And combined with the fact that the number of killings of citizens by police is at a two-decade high, all of this is a perfect storm of events which means that there's this response across the nation, peaceful protests for the most part, that says this must change.”

Morial brought up Giuliani's support for the grand jury finding in the Wilson-Brown case, and stressed that “in the Abner Louima case, in the Rodney King case, in the Danziger Bridge case in New Orleans, those are all cases where local prosecutors failed to either seek or secure an indictment or a conviction, where the federal government stepped in after the fact and secured justice for the victims.”

“The history is simply not good for local prosecutors and to some extent local police departments policing their own. That's why this is a time for us to change how we handle these incidents, and I think at the first instance, I support body cameras, I think there ought to be a national accreditation system for police officers, I think every city should review their deadly force policy. I think that cities should also completely revise how they train. They have to re-evaluate how they hire police officers,” Morial continued.

“This is a time when we've got to promote positive change. And I might add, I led a city, New Orleans, at the same time Rudy led New York. We reduced crime by 60 percent. We did it with community policing, and we also had a significant reduction in civil rights complaints against police departments.”

Giuliani said he's changed his mind on body cameras. “At one time, I thought they were a mistake. Now, I believe they are a very good idea, because 90 percent, 95 percent of these situations, the police officers turn out to be justified. And had this police officer had a body camera, we would not be having this discussion,” he said.

Giuliani also advocated stop-and-frisk “based on a reasonable cause to believe somebody's committing a crime.”

Morial said stop-and-frisk used “selectively and in a targeted way is absolutely permissible and a valid police tool.”

“I think it's better, if you will, to embrace a proactive, and this is the term, proactive policing system where police officers are out on the beat, where they're building relationships with people in the community,” he said. “Because after all, the way you bring down crime in a community is not simply by making arrest, but by preventing crime from occurring. And that's the essence of community policing. It focuses on prevention.”

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/11/30/former-n-y-and-n-o-mayors-on-race-and-crime-police-diversity-and-ferguson-response/

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From the Department of Justice

Statement by Attorney General Holder on the Ongoing Situation in Ferguson, Missouri

Attorney General Eric Holder made the following statement today on the ongoing situation in Ferguson, Missouri.

“Good afternoon. I have been briefed by members of the Justice Department and I wanted to provide a brief update of the Justice Department's ongoing efforts arising from the events in Ferguson, Missouri. I've been briefed today by the COPS director, Ron Davis, Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Molly Moran, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mark Kappelhoff and members of my staff, all of whom are here with me now.

“They are overseeing the federal investigations into the shooting of Michael Brown as well as the investigation that we are doing of the Ferguson Police Department. I want to emphasize that we have two investigations that are ongoing. As I've said many times before and reiterated in my statement last night, the department's investigations will continue to be thorough, they will continue to be independent and they remain ongoing. They will be conducted rigorously and in a timely manner so we can move forward as expeditiously as we can to restore trust, to rebuild understanding and to foster cooperation between law enforcement and community members.

“Last night and throughout the day, I have been briefed on events in and around Ferguson. I was disappointed that some members of the community resorted to violence rather than respecting what I thought were the really heartfelt words of Michael Brown Sr. and the wishes he expressed about how he wanted his son's memory to be honored with nonviolence. It is clear that acts of violence threaten to drown out those that have legitimate voices, legitimate demonstrators and those acts of violence cannot and will not be condoned.

“By contrast, I'm very encouraged that some of the more peaceful demonstrations last night as well as today have occurred and have been in keeping with Mr. Brown's request. I would remind demonstrators of our history that those, the way in which we have made progress in this country is when we have seen peaceful, nonviolent demonstrations that has led to the change that has been the most long lasting and the most pervasive.

“I've asked the COPS director, Ron Davis, to continue to confer with local law enforcement and to conduct an after action review so we can develop strategies for identifying and isolating the criminal elements from peaceful protesters. Additionally, I have instructed department officials to continue to make contact with leaders of the peaceful protesters and to seek their assistance in isolating those individuals who are inclined towards violence. We've had a good ongoing dialogue with peaceful demonstrators in Ferguson. I've been very heartened to hear about the good work that our community relations service has done as well as people under Mark in particular. And I've instructed them to maintain those levels of communications and keep those avenues of communications open.

“I really embrace those who have been proactively intervening to stop acts of violence within their midst and I encourage them to continue to exercise this important leadership. I know that that is not an easy thing to do but it was very heartening to hear about people last night trying to stop those other people who were trying to loot and trying to destroy businesses and burn things. Those people who took it upon themselves to try to stop those kinds of things are in fact heroes in my mind.

“Michael Brown's tragic death has revealed a deep distrust between some in the Ferguson community and its police force. It also developed a need to develop and widely disseminate law enforcement best practices for responding to public demonstrations. The Department of Justice has begun this work and will continue to work with communities around the country in this regard. The reality is that what we see in Ferguson is not restricted to Ferguson. There are other communities around this country that have these same issues that have to be dealt with and we at the Justice Department are determined to do all that we can to bridge those divides. We launched in September our Building Communities of Trust initiative to provide training to law enforcement and communities on bias reduction and procedural fairness and we plan to apply evidence-based strategies in the five pilot sites around the country. This is all designed to bridge those divides, bridge those gaps between law enforcement and the communities that they serve. These gaps, these divides exist in other parts of the country beyond Ferguson and our focus will be nationally in its scope to try to deal ultimately with these issues. We will continue to advance this work, as I said, around the country in the coming weeks and months by bringing together elected officials, law enforcement officials and community leaders both to ensure dialogue but also action. This isn't just about talking. We want to ensure that concrete steps are taken to address these underlying barriers to trust.

“I briefed the president today in the Oval Office about the situation in Ferguson, shared with him the perspectives of people in law enforcement and Justice Department officials who are there on the ground. We talked about programmatic issues that we want to announce relatively soon and also about the need to bring our people together. This is a difficult time for people in Ferguson. It's a difficult time for people in our country. It's an opportunity for us to find those things that bind us as a nation, to be honest with one another about those things that continue to divide us and come up with ways in which we make this union even more perfect. So that's what I talked about with the president. He is committed to this effort as are the men and women of the United States Department of Justice. Thanks very much.”

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/statement-attorney-general-holder-ongoing-situation-ferguson-missouri

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From the FBI

In the Line of Duty

Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted -- 2013 Report Released

A Florida sheriff's officer, responding to a report of a domestic disturbance at a residence, was shot and killed by someone inside the home. An Iowa police officer was shot and killed while attempting to serve an arrest warrant. A Michigan state trooper was fatally shot during a routine traffic stop. And a West Virginia sheriff was ambushed and fatally shot in the head while he was eating his lunch in a marked car.

According to the just-released Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) report, these four officers were among the 76 men and women killed in the line of duty during 2013—27 died as a result of felonious acts, and 49 died in accidents. Another 49,851 law enforcement officers were victims of line-of-duty assaults. Proof positive of the dangers that all officers willingly face, day in and day out, to protect the rest of us.

Among the report's findings for 2013:

•  Of the 27 officers feloniously killed, 16 were on assigned vehicle patrol duty when the incidents occurred, and all but one of the 27 officers was killed with a firearm.

•  Circumstances surrounding the deaths of these 27 officers included arrest situations, ambushes, investigations of suspicious persons, disturbance calls, tactical situations, traffic pursuits or stops, and investigative activities.

•  Law enforcement agencies identified 28 alleged assailants in connection with the felonious line-of-duty deaths (20 had prior criminal records).

•  Of the 49 officers accidentally killed, 23 died as a result of automobile accidents.

•  Of the nearly 49,851 officers assaulted during 2013, the largest percentage of victim officers (31.2 percent) were responding to disturbance calls (family quarrels, bar fights, etc.) when the incidents occurred.

•  New to LEOKA is the addition of detailed data concerning assault victims. Although this year's detailed information on assaults was only received for 78 officers, submissions are expected to increase over time. More details.

The LEOKA publication, released by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, contains data on duly-sworn city, university/college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement officers who, at the time of the incidents, met the following criteria:

•  They were working in an official capacity, whether on or off duty;

•  They had full arrest powers;

•  They ordinarily wore/carried a badge and a firearm; and

•  They were paid from government funds set aside specifically for sworn law enforcement representatives.

The information in the report comes from various sources—the law enforcement agencies participating in the UCR Program, FBI field offices, and several non-profit organizations, such as the Concerns of Police Survivors and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

The goal of the FBI's LEOKA program is to provide data and training that help keep law enforcement officers safe as they serve and protect our nation's communities. Later this week on our website, we'll focus on what LEOKA is doing, beyond its annual report, to further that goal—specifically, the extensive research being done on collected data (including studies involving interviews with individuals convicted of police killings) and the incorporation of that research into the officer safety awareness training conducted by the LEOKA program for partner agencies.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/november/in-the-line-of-duty-2013-leoka-report-released/in-the-line-of-duty-2013-leoka-report-released

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From the Department of Homeland Security

Give Yourself the Gift of Online Security

According to the National Retail Federation, 141 million people spent $57.4 billion dollars during Thanksgiving weekend last year, and consumers spent nearly $600 billion during the 2013 holiday season. The biggest shopping season of the year comes with great deals and benefits to shoppers, but it also comes with certain risks. While 80 percent of annual online sales occur between Black Friday and the weekend before Christmas, those four weeks are also the biggest weeks for online spammers and scammers. With the holiday season quickly approaching, the best gift you can give yourself and your family is the gift of online security.

The following tips can help you protect your personal information when shopping online:

•  Use and maintain anti-virus software and a firewall. Protect yourself against viruses and Trojan horses that may steal or modify the data on your computer and leave you vulnerable.

•  Evaluate your software's settings. The default settings for most software enable all available functionality, possibly leaving room for an attacker to access your computer remotely. Check the settings for all software, and especially those programs that connect to the Internet (browsers, email clients, mobile applications, etc.). Apply the highest level of security available that still gives you the functionality you need.

•  Shop on reliable websites. Take a look at the website's trademark or logo to make sure it's valid. Also, pay attention to the website's URL . Malicious websites may look identical to a legitimate website, but the URL may use a variation in spelling or a different domain (e.g., .com vs. .net).

•  Protect your personal information. Take the time to check a website's privacy policy and understand what personal information is being requested and how it will be used. If there is no policy cited, this could be a red flag that your personal information may be sold without your permission.

•  Beware of deals that sound too good to be true. Use caution when opening email attachments and don't follow web links included in unsolicited email messages. Watch out for extremely low prices on hard-to-get holiday items. If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is.

•  Look for the lock. When shopping online, check the lower-right corner of your screen for the padlock symbol and make sure the website address begins with “http s ://” before entering your shipping, billing, or payment information. This symbol means that you're using a website that is secure and which encrypts the data you send or receive.

•  Keep a record of your order. Retain all documentation of your online orders in the event that your purchase does not ship or there are unauthorized charges on your credit or debit card. Also, be sure to review your credit card statement each month for irregularities.

•  Get savvy about Wi Fi hotspots . Limit the type of business you conduct when using public Wi-Fi networks. Avoid shopping online when using public Wi-Fi as your information can easily be accessed by hackers on a public network.

If you think you have become a victim of identity theft, file a report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center. You can also report online fraud to the Federal Trade Commission and file a report with the Department of Justice.

The Department of Homeland Security's Stop.Think.Connect.™ campaign encourages everyone to be vigilant about daily Internet use. The campaign's objective is to increase the public's understanding of cyber threats and empower them to be safer and more secure online. For more information, please visit: www.dhs.gov/stopthinkconnect

http://www.dhs.gov/blog/2014/11/26/give-yourself-gift-online-security