Washington

Police search for motive in deadly Washington state mall shooting

by Reuters

Authorities on Sunday were still working to determine what prompted a 20-year-old man to open fire in a Washington state mall, killing five people.

Police arrested the suspected gunman, Arcan Cetin of Oak Harbor, Washington, on Saturday. Police said he was taken into custody without incident in Oak Harbor, some 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Burlington where the shooting occurred on Friday night.

Cetin opened fire at the Cascade Mall around 7 p.m. local time on Friday in the cosmetics section of a Macy's department store, police said, killing four women as well as one man who died later at a hospital.

Police said what motivated Cetin's rampage remains unclear. The FBI said while they had no indication the attack was a "terrorism act," it could not be ruled out

Police described Cetin's demeanour when apprehended as "zombie like," and said he was unarmed. Police said Cetin was born in Turkey, but described his status as that of a "legal, permanent resident" in the United States.

Authorities have not identified the victims, but local media said they ranged in age from mid-teens to mid-90s, and included a mother and her daughter.

Surveillance video from the mall in Burlington, around 65 miles (105 km) north of Seattle, showed the gunman brandishing the weapon, police said. Police said the gun was later recovered at the mall.

The mall attack followed a series of violent outbursts at shopping centres across the United States, including the stabbing of nine people at a Minnesota centre last weekend.

Police said Cetin is set to appear in court on Monday.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/police-search-for-motive-in-deadly-washington-state-mall-shooting/42471832

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Maryland

Baltimore Police: 3 gunmen shoot, wound 8 in attack

by The Palm Beach Post

BALTIMORE — Three gunmen shot and wounded eight people including a 3-year-old girl on an east Baltimore street Saturday night, police said, adding the suspects fled and the victims were all expected to survive.

The shooting erupted outside some rowhouses about 8:30 p.m. after the three armed men converged on the group from different points, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said at a news conference

Davis, who went to the scene, said the shooting was a premeditated act of retaliatory violence in response to a Labor Day weekend shooting in which a man was fatally shot and two women were wounded, one of them pregnant. He did not immediately explain how investigators believed the shootings were linked.

Davis said the victims could have recognized the gunmen but authorities haven't immediately been able to identify the suspects and were still searching for them hours afterward.

According to the commissioner, one of the armed men emerged from an alley and two others ran down the street, stopping just short of the victims before they opened fire. He added that the 3-year-old girl and her father were standing a slight distance away from the others and that the child was not an intended target.

Authorities have said one of the attackers had a shotgun and the other two had handguns.

Davis said that in addition to the girl, one of the victims was a woman and the rest were men. The adults ranged in age from 26 to 39.

Baltimore Police Spokesman T.J. Smith tweeted earlier that none of the injuries was life-threatening.

Police cordoned off at least three city blocks late Saturday and were keeping bystanders away as the police commissioner stood with detectives at the scene. Nearby, detectives used flashlights to search overgrown grass in an alley near the shooting scene. Police cars also blocked a nearby intersection.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/ap/ap/general/baltimore-police-3-gunmen-shoot-wound-8-in-attack/nsd9Z/E

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Man Arrested After 6 People Stabbed at House Party in Pasadena

by Kristina Bugante and Oleevia Woo

A man was charged with attempted murder after six people were stabbed at a Pasadena house party early Saturday morning, police said.

Police responded to a residence on the 3100 block of East California Boulevard around 3:10 a.m. after a fight broke out during a house party, according to Lt. Vasken Gourdikian of the Pasadena Police Department. About 100 to 150 people were in the home.

When officers arrived, they found six victims with stab wounds. According to police, a fight broke out after someone bumped into the suspect, identified as 21-year-old Aaron Te, and the San Gabriel resident pulled out a knife and began stabbing people around him.

Te was in front of the home when responding officers arrived and detained, Pasadena police said in a statement.

Police recovered Te's knife, which he had before he came to the party, Gourdikian said.

It was unclear if the man knew the victims or if he was an uninvited guest.

The victms were transported to local hospitals. All of the victims were described by police as Asian men in their early 20's. As of Saturday morning, one victim was in serious condition, two of the victims were in critical condition, and three others had moderate to severe injuries, but were expected to recover, police said.

Te was arrested for attempted murder and booked at the Pasadena City Jail," Pasadena police said in statement. It was not known if Te had an attorney.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Stabbing-California-Boulevard-Pasadena-394671151.html

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Maryland

6 stabbed in fight near Boston nightclubs

by Trevor Hughes

Six people were stabbed early Sunday morning in a popular clubbing area of downtown Boston following a fight, and police said at least one suspect was at large.

Officials at nearby Emerson College sent an alert to students shortly after the approximately 2:15 a.m. incident, asking its campus community to remain alert for any suspicious activity. Emerson police on Sunday morning declined to offer additional specifics, citing the ongoing investigation.

Boston Police said all the victims suffered non life-threatening injuries; their identities were not made public.

Boston Police Superintendent Bernard O'Rourke said police have identified at least one suspect, and said some victims suffered knife wounds while others were cut with bottles, the Boston Globe reported.

Photos posted to social media showed bloodied belongings scattered on the street outside the Courtyard by Marriott hotel on Tremont Street.

The area is home to multiple large dance clubs that close at 2 a.m. Police were initially called to the area on a report of a fight with four victims, police said.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/25/6-stabbed-fight-near-boston-nightclubs/91076346/

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California

California police probe triple homicide, search for missing teen

by The Chicago Tribune

Police investigating a triple homicide inside a Southern California home were searching for a teenage girl who lived there and is considered at-risk.

The probe began Saturday morning after a child called 911 to report her parents had died.

The child placed the call about 8:20 a.m., and officers were dispatched to a home in Fullerton, 26 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Inside, first responders discovered two men and a woman dead.

Two children were found unharmed, police said.

"Anytime someone loses their life it's a tragedy," police Sgt. Jon Radus said. "It's even more of a tragedy when children are involved."

Radus declined to release the children's ages or their relationship to the three adults found inside the home, citing the ongoing investigation. He said detectives spent the day searching for the children's sibling, identified as 17-year-old Katlynn Goodwill Yost, but have not been able to find her.

"We're concerned for her safety because we obviously haven't been able to find her," Radus said.

He said there were obvious signs of trauma to the bodies, but he would not release any details on how the adults might have died. Authorities were still working to determine their cause of death and identify them.

Investigators were classifying the deaths as a multiple homicide. In a statement, the Fullerton Police Department said the agency has "committed all its resources to identify who is responsible for this act."

Radus said authorities were working to obtain a search warrant to continue their investigation at the home. He said investigators were still trying to determine whether an outside suspect was responsible for the deaths.

"We don't believe the community is currently in danger at this particular time," he said.

A neighbor told the Orange County Register a couple lived in the house with three children, one a teenager and the others between 7 and 9 years old.

"It's sad for the children. They're now without parents," Donna Trice told the newspaper. "The two little girls found the bodies, and that tears me up."

The home sits on a block of single-family residences in a largely middle-class community.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/

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Opinion

Plague of Police Shootings

Economic disadvantage in segregated African-American communities is at the core of the police violence problem.

by Malcolm D. Holmes

Periodically police violence involving an African-American victim garners national attention. Many believe the police treat them unfairly, and police violence is at the heart of their concern about unequal justice. A spate of questionable fatal shootings during the last three years poignantly illustrates why they distrust the police. Just in the last week, African-American men were killed in Tulsa and Charlotte. These highly publicized incidents often generate competing claims about the legality of the police action, heighten racial tensions in communities, undermine police legitimacy and drain government resources to settle civil lawsuits.

Police officers may legitimately employ deadly force when someone poses a clear and imminent danger to citizens or officers, but many fatal police shootings involve reasonable questions about whether this standard was met. Only rarely do these cases result in criminal prosecution. Many police shootings involve ambiguous circumstances and limited, if any, independent and objective evidence. The police subculture's strict code of secrecy helps shield officers from detection when they needlessly kill a citizen. As a result, authorities may give the benefit of the doubt to police, with whom they have allegiance, rather than witnesses, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and appear less credible.

Questions about whether there is a different standard for employing deadly force against African-Americans emerged in the aftermath of the widespread urban riots of the 1960s. The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, commonly called the Kerner Commission, concluded that police killings of citizens often precipitated the unrest. At the time, nearly all big-city police officers were white, and the commission's recommendations included organizational reforms such as creating racially diverse departments. Often overlooked in the current conversation about relations between police and African-Americans, however, is a fundamental insight of the Kerner Commission: While the riots of the 1960s were frequently triggered by police-citizen encounters, the commission identified underlying conditions of social and economic disadvantage in segregated African-American communities as the core of the problem.

The conditions described by the Kerner Commission endure today, and my colleagues and I have found that police violence is most prevalent in highly segregated cities. Day-to-day police work in segregated communities frequently exposes officers to the most difficult conditions of urban life. Whether real or imagined, threats perceived by an officer may elicit fear and anger that can trigger a shooting. Furthermore, popular stereotypes equating race with violence and criminality are often part of departmental folklore. Stereotypes activated during encounters with African-American citizens may amplify emotional responses and further increase the likelihood of a violent outcome. It appears that even African-American officers are not immune to the effects of patrolling disadvantaged locales.

As the presidential race enters its final weeks, the latest police shootings have drawn the candidates' attention. Perhaps inevitably, the platitudes of the campaign trail gloss over the deeply rooted causes of police violence in African-American communities.

Many current policy proposals to improve police-minority relations – for example, departmental diversity and community policing – have somewhat limited benefits, but such initiatives dominate discourse on improving relations between police and citizens. Notably, the report by the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing mentioned the social and economic disadvantages of minority communities in just a couple of sentences but provided a long laundry list of policy recommendations for organizational reform. Yet research indicates these organizational changes have little effect on the incidence of police violence in comparison to the racial and spatial composition of cities.

Meaningfully addressing the problems of police-minority relations will require a broader commitment to alleviating the social and economic disadvantages afflicting many inner-city neighborhoods. Glibly proclaiming that one can effect such change from the Oval Office is, however, a far cry from laying out how such a monumental task might be accomplished. Ameliorating the difficult conditions experienced by many African-Americans will entail a long and arduous effort.

Is there anything that can be done in the short term to reduce police shootings of minority citizens? Perhaps yes. Murder charges were filed against police officers in recent shootings of African-American men in Chicago and Cincinnati only after video-camera evidence showed the officers' accounts of the incidents were false. Many police departments now require police officers to routinely use body-worn cameras. When claims of illegal police shootings arise, video evidence will be available to adjudicate the cases. But public access to the videos may remain limited, hampering inquiries into what actually transpired in police shootings.

More needs to be done. Police authorities and prosecutors all too often serve as apologists for officers in such cases. Investigations of police shootings need to become more transparent, and officers who violate the law, and those who help cover for them, must be punished severely. That will hardly eliminate the problem, but it may send a message that deters the most egregious abuses of police authority.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-09-23/whats-really-behind-plague-of-fatal-police-shootings-of-unarmed-black-men

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Ohio

Police in Youngstown stress importance of connecting with community

by Cameron O'Brien

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WYTV) – Youngstown's Community Policing Unit walks the beat in the city regularly with the goal of building trust and connecting with the community.

“Policing and solving problems is a group effort and in order to get a viable group to solve a problem, you need relationships,” said Youngstown officer Melvin Johnson.

Officers Johnson and Joe Moran circle the downtown area by foot, checking in with local businesses and residents.

The officers say recent problems of open containers and loitering are beginning to affect area businesses, so they stopped by local shops and talked with people on the street Friday to see if things were getting better.

Several people appreciated having them around.

“It makes me feel safe to know that we can be out and enjoying the Friday afternoon, and have them patrolling the area,” said Paris Huffman, a Youngstown resident.

Businesses are also glad to have police support.

“Anytime that we need anything, they're here, so it's great to have them on the streets. It's comforting,” Lee Simpson said.

Some residents say the foot patrol helps break down barriers between the police and community.

“If you don't know an officer and the officer don't know you, you might have a misunderstanding from the beginning,” Kwai Daniels said. “If you know an officer, and he comes up to you and says, ‘Hey, how are you doing?'…you got that respect factor.”

Moran says positive feedback like that means a lot.

“It's great. We want people to know that they can approach us, that they can talk to us.”

Not everyone's buying it, though.

“Not all police officers are here to protect and serve. You know, you got them crooked cops. You've got those cops that really don't care,” said Samarr Weatherly, of Youngstown.

Moran says the bottom line is to remember that everyone is a human being that deserves respect.

“You do what you have to do, but you have to do it in a manner that's professional and not overbearing.”

Both Moran and Johnson say the best way they can protect their community is by bonding with it.

http://wytv.com/2016/09/23/police-in-youngstown-stress-importance-of-connecting-with-community/

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Washington D.C.

Obama vetoes 9/11 bill; possible override by Congress looms

President Obama rejected a bill that would have allowed the 9/11 victims'' families to sue the Saudi Arabian government, arguing it undermined national security

by Darlene Superville and Josh Lederman

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama rejected a bill Friday that would have allowed the families of 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, arguing it undermined national security and setting up the possibility Congress may override his veto for the first time in his presidency.

Obama's move escalates the fight over an emotional issue that has overlapped with the campaign debate over terrorism and the Middle East. The bill had sailed through both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support, clearing the final hurdle just days before the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The president said the bill, which doesn't refer specifically to Saudi Arabia, could backfire by opening up the U.S. government and its officials to lawsuits by anyone accusing the U.S. of supporting terrorism, rightly or wrongly.

"I have deep sympathy for the families of the victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001," Obama wrote to the Senate in a veto message about the bill, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. But, he said, "the JASTA would be detrimental to U.S. national interests more broadly."

Congress is determined to try to overturn the veto, which requires a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate. Previous attempts to overturn Obama's vetoes have all been unsuccessful.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said an override would pass in the Republican-controlled House. Yet the Senate would be the greater challenge. After furious lobbying to try to peel off supporters, the White House said Friday it was unclear whether enough had defected to avert an override.

With lawmakers eager to return home to campaign, a vote could come early next week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office said the Senate would vote "as soon as practicable in this work period."

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate's No. 3 Democrat and a traditional Obama ally, came out swinging against Obama while predicting lawmakers would reverse it "swiftly and soundly."

"The families of the victims of 9/11 deserve their day in court, and justice for those families shouldn't be thrown overboard because of diplomatic concerns," Schumer said.

A coalition of 9/11 victims' families, meanwhile, said they were "outraged and dismayed." In a response circulated by their lawyers, the families insisted the bill would deter terrorism, "no matter how much the Saudi lobbying and propaganda machine may argue otherwise."

Though the concept of sovereign immunity generally shields governments from lawsuits, the bill creates an exception that allows foreign governments to be held responsible if they support a terrorist attack that kills U.S. citizens on American soil. Opponents say that's a slippery slope considering that the U.S. is frequently accused wrongly by its foes of supporting terrorism.

"Americans are in countries all over the world," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, a Republican, wrote Friday in a letter urging colleagues to support a veto. "Many of those countries do not respect the rule of law, and we cannot expect their responses to be as measured and narrow as ours."

Fifteen of the 19 men who carried out 9/11 were Saudi nationals. Families of the victims spent years lobbying lawmakers for the right to sue the kingdom in U.S. court for any role elements of Saudi Arabia's government may have played. Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally, strongly objected to the bill.

Obama long had objected, too, warning that foreign countries might reciprocate by dragging American government, diplomats and military members before courts. The administration was also apprehensive about undermining a difficult yet strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia. The U.S. relies on the Saudis to counter Iran's influence in the Middle East and help combat the spread of terrorism.

Since the bill's passage, the White House has lobbied aggressively to persuade lawmakers to withdraw support, and found some sympathetic listeners. The bill had passed by voice vote - meaning lawmakers didn't have to go on the record with their positions — and the White House was hoping the prospect of a recorded vote would lead some Democrats to reconsider publicly rebuking their president.

Debate about the bill has spilled onto the presidential campaign trail, as candidates vie to appear tough on terrorism. The issue is one of a few where Democrat Hillary Clinton, who supports the bill, has publicly disagreed with Obama. Trump, too, backs it, and said Obama's veto was "shameful and will go down as one of the low points of his presidency."

The bill had triggered a perceived threat by Saudi Arabia to pull billions of dollars from the U.S. economy if it was enacted. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir said in May the kingdom never issued threats, but had merely warned that investor confidence in the U.S. would shrink if the bill became law.

The House vote on Sept. 9 came two months after Congress released 28 declassified pages from a congressional report into 9/11. The pages reignited speculation over links that at least a few of the attackers had to Saudis, including government officials. The allegations were never substantiated by later U.S. investigations.

http://www.policeone.com/9-11/articles/224214006-Obama-vetoes-9-11-bill-possible-override-by-Congress-looms/

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From the FBI

Hazardous Devices School

FBI Takes Lead Role in Training Nation's Public Safety Bomb Technicians

After a 45-year partnership with the U.S. Army, the FBI yesterday formally accepted primary responsibility for the Hazardous Devices School at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, the facility that trains and certifies every one of the nation's public safety bomb technicians.

The transition of responsibility ceremony, which occurred less than a week after homemade bombs exploded in New York and New Jersey, injuring 29 people, underscores the critical role the Hazardous Devices School (HDS) plays in the country's national security. Some of the unexploded devices in last weekend's incident were rendered safe by local bomb techs who received their training at the HDS.

“The bombing events in New York and New Jersey are a testament to the challenges faced by bomb technicians daily—and an unfortunate reminder of a threat that is both evolving and enduring,” noted FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was on hand at Redstone Arsenal for the transition ceremony along with other Bureau and Army officials.

McCabe explained that the FBI has an obligation to provide “the best possible tools and training” to local, state, and federal bomb technicians and that the Bureau plans to significantly expand and upgrade the HDS facility over the next several years. The expansion will include state of the art facilities and equipment, he said, to ensure that the HDS “remains the nation's single source of certified training for bomb technicians.”

Established in 1971, the HDS has provided training to more than 20,000 local, state, and federal first responders and bomb techs. Currently the school trains and certifies approximately 200 new bomb techs each year from the 467 public safety bomb squads around the country, according to the school's director, Special Agent Jeff Warren. The basic certification course provides six weeks of instruction, and each of the country's 3,100 public safety bomb techs—which does not include the military's explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians—is required to be recertified at HDS every three years.

At the facility's sprawling campus, training is provided in classrooms, explosives ranges, and in “villages” that include mock stores, churches, and apartment complexes that are designed to resemble the conditions bomb techs would face during life or death situations in the real world. In addition to certification and recertification programs, the school offers advance training in a variety of areas, including weapons of mass destruction and electronic and maritime countermeasures.

“The threat from terrorists and other criminals is ever changing,” Warren said, and now that the FBI has assumed primary leadership of the HDS, there is a greater responsibility on the Bureau to make sure the nation's public safety bomb techs are prepared for whatever they might face in real life. “We have to provide the very best training available,” he said. “This is a no-fail mission.”

Although yesterday's ceremony completed the transition of the HDS to the Bureau, McCabe pointed out that the Army will continue to play an important role in the school's mission, “and the FBI looks forward to our continued partnership with the Army and the team at Redstone.”

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/fbi-takes-lead-role-in-training-nations-public-safety-bomb-technicians

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From ICE

ICE arrests 36 fugitives across US during Operation Safe Nation and Operation No Safe Haven III

WASHINGTON – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 36 fugitives during concurrent nationwide operations this week – Operation Safe Nation and Operation No Safe Haven III. Of those arrested, 17 were sought because they may pose a threat to public safety or national security, including individuals suspected of providing material support to a terrorist organization and 19 were sought for their known or suspected roles in human rights violations overseas.

During the operations that concluded Wednesday, the ICE National Fugitive Operations Program arrested the fugitives in coordination with the ICE Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, the ICE Counterterrorism Section and ICE field offices in the following cities: Atlanta; Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco and St. Paul, Minnesota. This concurrent nationwide operation was the first of its kind. It focused on the apprehension of fugitives known or suspected to pose a danger to public safety or national security and those known or suspected of human rights violations.

“Through the vigorous use of our unique investigative authorities, ICE will continue to ensure that our great nation provides no safe haven for human rights violators and other national security threats,” said ICE Director Sarah R. Saldaña. “To those hiding in the shadows: we will find you, arrest you and bring you to justice.”

The foreign nationals arrested during these operations all have outstanding removal orders and are subject to repatriation to their countries of origin. Of the 36 individuals arrested, four are also criminal aliens, convicted in the U.S. for crimes such as drug trafficking, bribery, domestic violence and driving under the influence.

Those arrested during Operation Safe Nation included:

•  An individual from East Africa previously under investigation for his suspected association with individuals of national security interest. The individual has an extensive criminal history, including violent and drug trafficking offenses;

•  Three individuals from South Asia who were known or suspected to have provided material support to a terrorist organization whose members have engaged in assassinations and used explosives and firearms to endanger people and destroy property;

•  An individual from North Africa who was suspected of having ties to international terrorism and was convicted of a crime in connection with an attempt to import a controlled substance into the United States.

Those arrested during No Safe Haven III for known or suspected human rights violations included:

•  Three individuals from China who assisted in forced sterilizations and forced abortions upon victim patients or incarcerated religious practitioners who were later persecuted;

•  An individual from the Eastern Europe who admitted to participating in military attacks upon civilians in which victims were raped and murdered;

•  A senior military officer from South America working in conjunction with the state's intelligence service unit implicated with a clandestine death squad.

ICE is committed to rooting out those who pose a threat to national security or public safety, including known or suspected human rights violators who seek a safe haven in the U.S. ICE investigates those who try to evade justice by seeking shelter in the U.S., including individuals suspected of providing material support to a terrorist organization, espionage, or export violations, and those who are known or suspected to have participated in persecution, war crimes, genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, and the use or recruitment of child soldiers.

ICE Fugitive Operations Teams conduct investigative enforcement activities every day to identify, locate and arrest those who are removable from the U.S. and present a heightened threat to public safety and national security. The efforts of these teams result in hundreds of arrests per week, both from daily operational activities and organized operations such as the operations announced today.

The ICE National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center (NCATC) provided critical investigative support for this operation, including criminal and intelligence analysis from a variety of sources. The NCATC provides comprehensive analytical support to aid the at-large enforcement efforts of all ICE components.

ICE credits the success of this operation to the combined efforts of the U.S. National Central Bureau-Interpol Washington which provided critical support with deconfliction, foreign criminal history, and identity confirmation information.

“Interpol's investigative tools provide U.S. law enforcement with a suite of databases that provide real-time biometric, travel document, and criminal background information,” according to Interpol Washington Director Geoffrey S. Shank. “These operations exemplify what can be achieved when U.S. and international law enforcement agencies have immediate access to information.”

The FBI, ICE liaison to the National Joint Terrorism Task Force, U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Marshals Service, whose deputies and personnel provided significant investigative assistance in meeting these common public safety and national security goals with ICE, were also key to the success of these operations.

Members of the public who have information about those presenting a national security threat and/or suspected of engaging in human rights abuses are urged to contact ICE by calling the toll-free ICE tip line at 1-866-347-2423 or internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They can also complete ICE's online tip form.

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-arrests-36-fugitives-across-us-during-operation-safe-nation-and-operation-no-safe

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Seeking justice for victims around the world

ICE initiative targets human rights violators living among us

Among the ideals upon which the United States of America was founded, and has thrived for nearly 250 years, is the understanding that no individual is above the law and all are equally protected by those who have sworn an oath to uphold it.

This fundamental belief also holds accountable human rights violators who have committed crimes against humanity around the world and have attempted to evade justice in their own countries by living secret lives here in the United States.

As the federal law enforcement organization with the broadest international authorities, ICE established in 2008 a team responsible for leading the long and difficult investigations into human rights violators and other war criminals who enter the United States.

The Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC) began as a pilot project in April 2008. Underscoring a whole-of-government approach to bringing these criminals to justice, the Center co-locates a select group of special agents, attorneys, criminal research specialists and historians. It also brings together resources and expertise from various DHS components and other departmental agencies, to include the FBI's International Human Rights Unit and the Department of State, to work collaboratively on human rights violators and war crimes investigations. With bona fide successes supporting this crucial concept, the Center was formally recognized as a permanent ICE entity in October 2009.

The HRVWCC uses a variety of sources and methods to identify human rights abusers living in the United States or attempting to enter the United States. The Center works with international and national tribunals, foreign law enforcement partners, and INTERPOL to develop lead information. Non-governmental organizations and academics play a critical role in assisting ICE in locating and supporting witnesses, and in contextualizing conflicts so that judges and juries can understand the role the alleged perpetrators played in human rights violations.

Recently, a former member of the Guatemalan army, whom witnesses say participated in the Dos Erres massacre which claimed more than 200 lives in December 1982, was returned to his country. His case was the fourth investigation initiated by the HRVWCC involving participants in the Dos Erres massacre.

“We owe it to all victims of war crimes and human rights abuses around the world, and to their families, to use every resource at our disposal to ensure the U.S. is not a safe haven for those involved in such atrocities.”

A recently completed documentary film titled “Finding Oscar” highlights ICE's work investigating one of the human rights violators who participated in the Dos Erres massacre.

Cases like this are developed and investigated through ICE's No Safe Haven initiative. Many individuals fleeing wars, genocide, ethnic cleansing and various other forms of persecution see the United States as a safe place for themselves and their families. Upon entry, the vast majority of these people choose to remain here permanently and, ultimately, gain citizenship through the naturalization process.

Unfortunately, individuals who have perpetrated significant abuses against others in their home countries are also coming to America seeking to evade potential prosecution and punishment. These individuals frequently hide among those they once persecuted, falsely claiming to be victims of abuse. They may be former officials of regimes that are or were potentially hostile to our nation and its interests, making them not only human-rights violators, but also national security threats. ICE's No Safe Haven initiative targets these individuals.

For example, ICE's National Fugitive Operations Program recently completed its third coordinated, nationwide enforcement action targeting fugitives sought for their roles in known or suspected human rights violations. All those arrested during Operation No Safe Haven have outstanding removal orders and are subject to repatriation, including a citizen of West Africa implicated in human rights atrocities as a member of a revolutionary group that engaged in the murder of women and children and an individual from Asia who performed forced sterilizations upon several female victims. The results of this most recent enforcement action bring to 88 the number of suspected human rights violators and war criminals arrested through Operation No Safe Haven.

Efforts through the No Safe Haven initiative send a clear message to those accused of human rights violations that, regardless of the amount of time that has passed, or the distance they have traveled, they cannot escape justice by hiding in the United States. ICE is committed to keeping the nation safe by identifying, investigating, prosecuting and removing human rights abusers and war criminals who enter the United States.

Since fiscal year 2004, ICE has arrested more than 375 individuals for human rights-related violations of the law under various criminal and/or immigration statutes. During that same period, ICE obtained deportation orders for and physically removed more than 815 known or suspected human rights violators from the United States.

Currently, ICE has more than 140 active investigations into suspected human rights violators and is pursuing more than 1,700 leads and removal cases involving suspected human rights violators from 97 different countries. Over the last four years, the HRVWCC has issued more than 70,000 lookouts for individuals from more than 110 countries and stopped 194 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the United States.

The public is encouraged to call the ICE tip line at 866-DHS-2-ICE with any information regarding foreign nationals suspected of engaging in human rights abusers or war crimes.

https://www.ice.gov/features/no-safe-haven

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From the Department of Justice

Department of Justice Releases Strategy Memo to Address Prescription Opioid and Heroin Epidemic

Attorney General Lynch Announces Support, Calls on Governors to Strengthen PDMP Efforts

As part of the Obama Administration's commitment to address the rising public health challenges caused by the national prescription opioids and heroin epidemic, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch issued a memo this week announcing the department's three-part prevention, enforcement and treatment strategy. The memo lays out action items, institutionalizes best practices, and builds on existing efforts by U.S. Attorney's Offices, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other Department of Justice components.

Additionally, Attorney General Lynch sent a letter to Governors calling on them to strengthen the effectiveness of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) and to improve data sharing of vital information from doctors and pharmacists about patient prescriptions—both within states and among neighboring states. To further this effort, the department also announced an $8.8 million grant to 20 states to help reduce prescription drug abuse, misuse and diversion. The awards, funded under the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)'s Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program FY 2016 Competitive Grant Program, enable awardees to create, implement and enhance PDMPs.

A fact sheet of the strategy memo is outlined below.

To combat the opioid epidemic, the department's components must work together and with other federal, state, local and tribal agencies to seek a comprehensive solution. The strategy outlined in the U.S. Attorney memo, expressed in the Attorney General's letter to Governors and made possible through grants like BJA's Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program FY 2016 Competitive Grant Program, embraces an approach that focuses on prevention, enforcement and treatment, and identifies next steps that are immediately actionable.

For more on opioid week, please visit: https://www.justice.gov/opioidawareness/heroin-opioid-awareness-week

Hagerstown, Maryland

NOTE from MJ: I watched the 14 min video from the police body cams and it gives a completely opposite perspective. And nowhere in the video did it show her being slammed into a wall.  I think these cops showed alot of patience.

Cops Appear To Pepper Spray A Handcuffed 15-Year-Old Girl After She Gets Hit By A Car

by Kimberly Ricci

Some truly disturbing footage has emerged of police roughing up a teenage girl in Hagerstown, Maryland after she was struck by a car while riding her bike. The biracial girl, aged fifteen, was charged with several offenses — including two counts of second-degree assault, disorderly conduct, and possession of marijuana — after an enormous ordeal, according to her attorney, Robin Ficker. Many of the alleged actions of the officers occurred in this Facebook video, and body cam footage is reportedly on the way, which Ficker says will reveal the rest.

After the teenager was struck by a vehicle, she lost consciousness for about 30 seconds and then reportedly tried to ride away on her bike. Bystanders summoned police, but the girl refused medical attention. So, a cop allegedly slammed her face into a wall. They cuffed her, placed her in the back of a patrol vehicle, and warned her that she would be sprayed if she didn't put her legs in the car. She asked for an officer friend of hers to be contacted, but the officer sprayed her instead. In the video, she's heard screaming and crying and begging for relief (“I can't breathe”), which she did not receive.

At one point, a bystander questions the officers' actions and receives this answer: “What happens … [she could have] a brain injury or something like that, and then she could die later? And she's going to come over here and fight us when all we want to do is make sure she's okay.”

In a Facebook comment on her attorney's video post, Ficker reveals that police not only sprayed the girl through the open door, but they also sprayed her from the inside of the car “in the mouth through the partition between the front and back seats. They do not seatbelt her and never take her to the hospital for treatment.” Hours after she was taken to the police station to be charged, police allowed the girl to leave with her father, who took her to the hospital.

The girl's charges will be handled by juvenile court.

http://uproxx.com/news/cops-pepper-spray-15-year-old-girl-hit-car/

~~~

Also from MJ: Heres the link for another article that includes the complete video. This just shows how the media twists things against law enforcement.

http://wjla.com/news/local/police-release-footage-of-2-police-body-cams-in-arrest-of-underage-girl

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North Carolina

Keith Scott's Family Sees Videos of His Killing, and Says the Public Should, Too

by ALAN BLINDER, NIRAJ CHOKSHI and RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The grieving relatives of a man who was killed by the police here watched videos on Thursday of the fatal shooting, a wrenching experience that they said revealed no hint of aggression in him and left the family members convinced that the videos should be made public. But the city's police chief, who had arranged for the private viewing, held fast to his decision not to release the recordings.

The wife and other relatives of the dead man, Keith L. Scott, watched his killing from two angles, recorded Tuesday by police dashboard and body cameras, and “it was incredibly difficult,” a family lawyer, Justin Bamberg, said in a statement.

He said the family had come away with more questions than answers and a different interpretation from the account offered by the police, who have said that Mr. Scott, 43, was shot after he got out of his car brandishing a gun.

“When told by police to exit his vehicle, Mr. Scott did so in a very calm, nonaggressive manner,” Mr. Bamberg said. “While police did give him several commands, he did not aggressively approach them or raise his hands at members of law enforcement at any time.” When an officer opened fire, he added, “Mr. Scott's hands were by his side, and he was slowly walking backwards.”

On Thursday night, hundreds of people gathered at an intersection in central Charlotte, holding signs and chanting, “We want the tapes!” in a peaceful demonstration.

Mayor Jennifer Roberts ordered a midnight-to-6-a.m. curfew, the first since the unrest began, though the demonstrations were largely peaceful, and the police did not enforce the curfew as it went into effect. The police said that two officers were being treated after protesters sprayed them with a chemical. There were no immediate reports of injuries to civilians.

On Thursday evening, some protesters marched to the police headquarters and held a moment of silence, fists raised in tribute to a man who was fatally shot during the previous night's protest and to those killed by the police. They marched to the county jail and chanted for the inmates behind the slats. Some inside blinked their lights off and on in apparent solidarity.

Later, Interstate 277 was briefly shut down as demonstrators moved onto the roadway, and the police fired smoke to try to disperse them.

Mr. Scott's death touched off violence in Charlotte on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. As hundreds of National Guard troops and State Police officers fanned out across the city on Thursday in an effort to head off further violence, Chief Kerr Putney of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police brushed aside demands by activists, community leaders and the news media to make the police video public.

“We release it when we believe there is a compelling reason,” he said.

Until they viewed the videos on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Scott's relatives had said they were uncertain whether they should be released to the public, according to Mr. Bamberg.

While the family members differed with the police on some major points about the videos, they seemed to be in agreement with Chief Putney on one aspect. “It is impossible to discern from the videos what, if anything, Mr. Scott is holding in his hands,” they said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, Chief Putney said, “The video does not give me absolute, definitive visual evidence that would confirm that a person is pointing a gun.” He added later that he could not see Mr. Scott's hands. But the chief, speaking at a news conference, said that eyewitness accounts and other evidence suggested that Mr. Scott was holding a pistol at the time he was shot, and that a weapon had been found at the scene.

Mr. Scott was black — as is the officer who shot him, Brentley Vinson — and his death added to a long list of killings of black men at the hands of law enforcement that had rocked cities and spurred protests around the country, bolstering claims of racial bias in policing.

On Thursday, a white officer in Tulsa, Okla., was charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting an unarmed black man last week — a case in which startling police video was released within days of the encounter.

During Wednesday night's demonstrations, a protester was shot in the head in what the police described as a “civilian on civilian” episode. But some protesters accused the police of opening fire. Early Thursday evening, just about the time a crowd was gathering, the police announced that the man had died earlier in the day and that the department had begun a homicide investigation.

The police identified the victim as Justin Carr, 26, without elaborating further on his death.

Some black leaders and protesters have called for the public release of the videos from the outset, and those demands have grown louder in the succeeding days.

“There must be transparency, and the video must be released,” said the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, the president of the North Carolina N.A.A.C.P.

He said the protesters who had taken to the streets here by the hundreds since Mr. Scott's death were “rising up against systems of injustice that protect officers who kill.”

“It's about saying we are against bad police, because bad police make it bad for good police,” Mr. Barber said.

In a day of rapid developments and rolling news conferences, local, state and federal officials called for calm. Protests had escalated the previous night, with some people smashing windows and storefronts, and the police used tear gas to disperse crowds and made 44 arrests. Nine civilians were injured, two officers had minor eye injuries, and three officers had heat exhaustion.

At 12:30 a.m. Thursday, local officials declared a state of emergency, calling for help from state forces, who deployed during the day in a show of strength throughout the city. Gov. Pat McCrory said he started mobilizing the National Guard early Wednesday in anticipation of that request, but he refused to second-guess Chief Putney and Mayor Roberts for not asking for help sooner.

The State Bureau of Investigation began an investigation of the case, the governor said, and critics of the police asked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to step in. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said the Justice Department and the F.B.I. were monitoring events and offering help to local officials.

“I know that the events of recent days are painfully unclear and call out for answers,” Ms. Lynch said. “But I also know that the answer will not be found in the violence of recent days.”

Protests began Tuesday night after Officer Vinson shot Mr. Scott while the police were serving a warrant on someone else. Starkly different accounts have emerged about what happened. The police say Mr. Scott was holding a gun before he was shot; friends and family say it was a book. Though the videos do not offer definitive proof on their own, they support the official version of events, Chief Putney said.

“When taking in the totality of all the other evidence, it supports what we've heard and the version of the truth that we gave about the circumstances that happened that led to the death of Mr. Scott,” he said. He added that the department's practice was not to release video to the public, to protect the integrity of investigations.

Demonstrators and black community leaders said the outrage was not just about what had happened to Mr. Scott, but was fueled by a much broader context. “We need folks to understand there is a direct connection between the rioting and the creation of two separate groups based on class and race for decades,” said Justin Perry, an addiction counselor who is black and took part in the protest.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus pressed the Justice Department to do more by starting a thorough investigation into recent police shootings that had led to nationwide protests. Lawmakers from the 45-member group marched from the Capitol to the Justice Department to deliver a letter to Ms. Lynch, reinforcing the significance of their concerns.

Both Chief Putney and Mayor Roberts sought to reassure residents that the city was prepared to avert another night of violence. Ms. Roberts said that the city was safe. “Our transit system is running; our businesses are open; our center city is here to welcome you,” she said on Thursday morning.

Still, several large businesses encouraged employees to stay home after the chaos.

Wells Fargo told approximately 12,000 employees that they were not expected to report to work in Charlotte's Uptown neighborhood. Those unable to work remotely would be paid regardless, a spokesman said. Ally, the financial services company, closed two offices in Charlotte, affecting 900 employees. Duke Energy asked 500 employees and contractors to work remotely, and Fifth Third Bank asked the same of its employees.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/us/charlotte-protests-keith-scott.html?_r=0

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Opinion

What we should really call the riots in Charlotte

Mayhem in another American city continues as pushers of false narratives infect the national narrative and invade vulnerable cities to commit acts of terror on the streets

by Doug Wylie

Last night — for the second night in a row — an American city was ravaged by rioting, looting, and other forms of violence following a controversial officer-involved shooting.

Charlotte (N.C.) joined an unfortunate fraternity of cities whose members include Baltimore, Cleveland, and Ferguson. In those cities, peaceful protest turned into violent riots, and in all cases, it was later discovered that the originally offending police use of force was justified. In each of these cities, rioters were fueled by emotions and false narratives — not facts — and driven by interlopers with hidden agendas.

As law enforcement professionals, let's examine the facts of the case as we presently know them and come to some well-reasoned conclusions. Then, let's give some attention to the criminality of what's happened in the aftermath.

Just the facts, please…

A black man named Keith Lamont Scott — reportedly armed with a handgun — refused to comply with lawful orders of a police officer. Scott was given multiple warnings by the above mentioned police officers to drop his weapon. An officer, also a black man, shot the non-compliant subject. The subject was taken to a local hospital where he was given potentially life-saving care, but unfortunately he subsequently expired.

The following day, Chief Kerr Putney (a black man) issued statements to the media urging calm among his city's residents. Chief Putney implored citizens to remain peaceful. Hours later, all hell broke loose. A dozen officers were injured by rocks, bottles, and other objects hurled by protesters who believed that the man killed in that OIS was armed only with a book. Rioters set fires and destroyed property. At least three reporters were hurt. A truck was set ablaze.

The very next night, the same scene of mayhem unfolded. The freeway encircling the city — the I-277 — became a combat zone, with innocent motorists targeted by angry mobs. At least one citizen was left in critical condition after being shot in the head by another citizen. Some reports indicated that another six officers were wounded during the second night of violence.

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency, ordering the National Guard to lock down his state's most populous city. Hopefully, this will end the violence in Charlotte — only time will tell.

The definition of terrorism

At the time of this writing, we don't fully know the extent to which the City of Charlotte has been damaged — but damaged it most certainly has been. What we do know is that peaceful protest ended when a small fraction of the protesters stopped practicing their First Amendment right to free speech and peaceable assembly and turned to committing criminal acts.

Spray painting the sides of buildings is vandalism. Lighting fires is arson. Looting the local Wal-Mart is burglary. Menacing drivers on a freeway is assault. Launching rocks, bottles, and other projectiles at police is battery. Shooting someone in the head is attempted murder.

And all of it, is terrorism.

Yes, terrorism. Remember that the FBI defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

Further, recall that Title 22 of the U.S. Code, Section 2656f(d) defines terrorism as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.”

Both definitions share a common theme: the use of force intended to influence or instigate a course of action that furthers a political or social goal.

The First Amendment ensures that Congress shall make no law “abridging the freedom of speech” or “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Nowhere in the Constitution of the United States does it indicate that citizens may terrorize a city with violence — or the threat of violence — for political or social goals.

Looking toward the future

At the time of this writing, we don't know the totality of the circumstances during the event that left Keith Lamont Scott deceased. What we do know is that even the most thorough and complete investigation into his death is likely to prove unsatisfactory to a certain segment of citizens who will travel from afar to instigate violence in furtherance of their agendas.

We also know that the rioters are getting more sophisticated in their tactics. In contrast to the protests following Ferguson, the protesters in Charlotte appeared to be better prepared to deal with the tear gas and flash-bangs deployed by police. They were essentially undeterred by those efforts to disperse the unruly crowd. Further, the rioters utilized swarming techniques, moving back and forth between different locations, keeping police off balance.

Let's all hope that the local law enforcement officers, now partnered with the North Carolina National Guard, can keep the peace on the streets of Charlotte tonight and for the days and weeks to come.

About the author

Doug Wyllie is Editor at Large for PoliceOne, responsible for providing police training content and expert analysis on a wide range of topics and trends that affect the law enforcement community. An award-winning columnist — he is the 2014 Western Publishing Association "Maggie Award" winner in the category of Best Regularly Featured Digital Edition Column — Doug has authored more than 900 feature articles and tactical tips. Doug is also responsible for planning and recording the PoliceOne Podcast, Policing Matters, as well as being the on-air host for PoliceOne Video interviews. Doug also works closely with the PoliceOne Academy to develop training designed to prepare cops for the fight they face every day on the street.

Doug regularly represents PoliceOne as a public speaker in a variety of forums and is available for media interviews — he as appeared on numerous local and national radio and television news programs, and has been quoted in a host of print publications.

Doug is a member of International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA), an Associate Member of the California Peace Officers' Association (CPOA), and a member of the Public Safety Writers Association (PSWA).

http://www.policeone.com/Crowd-Control/articles/223626006-What-we-should-really-call-the-riots-in-Charlotte/

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Oklahoma

Criminal charges against officer in Tulsa police shooting may prevent unrest

by The Associated Press

Less than a week after an unarmed black man was shot dead by a white police officer on a Tulsa street, prosecutors charged the officer with first-degree manslaughter, a decision that may prevent unrest in a city with a long history of tense race relations.

Tulsa officer Betty Shelby "reacted unreasonably" when she fatally shot 40-year-old Terence Crutcher on Sept. 16, prosecutors wrote in an affidavit filed with the charge on Thursday. Police also acted quickly to provide videos of the shooting to black community leaders and members of Crutcher's family and then released them to the public.

Shelby was booked in the Tulsa County jail at 1:11 a.m. Friday and was released at 1:31 a.m. after posting $50,000 bond, according to jail records.

The swift action in Tulsa stood in contrast to Charlotte, North Carolina, where police refused under mounting pressure Thursday to publicly release video of the shooting of another black man this week and the National Guard was called in after two nights of violent protests. Demonstrations in Tulsa since Crutcher's death have been consistently peaceful.

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett praised the police department for quickly providing evidence to District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler's office.

"These are important steps to ensure that justice and accountability prevails," Bartlett said in a statement. "We will continue to be transparent to ensure that justice and accountability prevails."

Phil Turner, a Chicago-based defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, said the motivation of prosecutors in Tulsa may have been partly to allay outrage and avoid the kind of violence Charlotte has seen.

"But I don't think the charge was only to give the crowd some blood. ... No. I think (prosecutors) must have thought charges were warranted," he said.

If convicted, Shelby faces between four years and life in prison.

Crutcher's twin sister, Tiffany Crutcher, said her family is pleased with the charge, but she and her attorneys want to ensure a vigorous prosecution that leads to a conviction.

Attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons said: "We are happy that charges were brought, but let me clear — the family wants and deserves full justice.

"Not only for this family, not only for Terence but to be a deterrent for law officers all around this nation to know that you cannot kill unarmed citizens."

Shelby's attorney, Scott Wood, did not immediately respond to telephone messages seeking comment on the charges.

Dashcam and aerial footage of the shooting and its aftermath showed Crutcher walking away from Shelby with his arms in the air. The footage does not offer a clear view of when Shelby fired the single shot that killed Crutcher. Her attorney has said Crutcher was not following police commands and that Shelby opened fire when the man began to reach into his SUV window.

But Crutcher's family immediately discounted that claim, saying the father of four posed no threat to the officers. And police said Crutcher did not have a gun on him or in his vehicle.

The affidavit filed Thursday indicates that Shelby "cleared the driver's side front" of Crutcher's vehicle before she began interacting with Crutcher, suggesting she may have known there was no gun on the driver's side of the vehicle.

The affidavit says Shelby told police homicide investigators that "she was in fear for her life and thought Mr. Crutcher was going to kill her. When she began following Mr. Crutcher to the vehicle with her duty weapon drawn, she was yelling for him to stop and get on his knees repeatedly."

Prosecutors offer two possible theories in charging documents: That Shelby killed Crutcher impulsively in a fit of anger or that she wrongly killed him as she sought to detain him. Lee F. Berlin, a Tulsa-based defense lawyer and a former assistant district attorney in Oklahoma, said prosecutors could present both theories or may decide to move forward with only one and let jurors decide.

Berlin also said he thought ongoing tests by the state medical examiner's office would be enough to delay the filing of criminal charges.

"So, yes, I was surprised it came back quickly," he said, adding that he and other Tulsa attorneys he spoke with thought any charges against Shelby were unlikely.

Shelby, who joined the Tulsa Police Department in December 2011, was en route to a domestic violence call when she encountered Crutcher's vehicle abandoned on a city street, straddling the center line. Shelby did not activate her patrol car's dashboard camera, so no footage exists of what first happened between the two before other officers arrived.

The police footage shows Crutcher approaching the driver's side of the SUV, then more officers walk up and Crutcher appears to lower his hands and place them on the vehicle. A man inside a police helicopter overhead says: "That looks like a bad dude, too. Probably on something."

Police Sgt. Dave Walker has said investigators found a vial of the drug PCP in Crutcher's vehicle. Shelby's attorney, Wood, has said that Shelby completed drug-recognition expert training and thought Crutcher was acting like he might be under the influence of PCP.

Attorneys for Crutcher's family said the family didn't know whether drugs were found in the SUV, but that even if they were, it wouldn't justify the shooting.

In the videos, the officers surround Crutcher and he suddenly drops to the ground. A voice heard on the police radio says: "Shots fired!" The officers back away and Crutcher is left unattended on the street for about two minutes before an officer puts on medical gloves and begins to attend to him.

Crutcher's shooting followed a long history of troubled race relations in Tulsa, dating to the city's 1921 race riot that left about 300 black residents dead. As recently as 2013, a City Council vote to rename the city's glitzy arts district, which had been named after the son of a Confederate veteran and Ku Klux Klan member, drew vehement opposition.

Earlier this year, a white former volunteer deputy with the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office was sentenced to four years in prison after he was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Eric Harris, who was also black and unarmed.

But Kunzweiler, the Tulsa prosecutor, emphasized the city's peaceful reaction in the aftermath of Crutcher's shooting.

"It's important to note that despite the heightened tensions felt by all, which seemingly beg for an emotional response and reaction, our community has consistently demonstrated the willingness to respect the judicial process," he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/09/23/criminal-charges-against-officer-in-tulsa-police-shooting-may-prevent-unrest.html

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Charlotte, NC - Tulsa, OK

How police shootings in two cities prompted very different strategies - and aftermaths

by William Wan and Peter Holley

By now, it has become almost routine – the police shooting, the outrage, the protests.

And the decisions.

Do you release the footage? Do you deploy riot gear? Do you call in the National Guard?

For city leaders across the country, this is their new reality, in which a tragically common incident – the shooting of a black man by police – has the potential to unleash chaos upon their communities, in which the wrong decision can set a city afire.

On Thursday, it was Charlotte's turn to struggle through those decisions. As they did, Mayor Jennifer Roberts and her police chief were drawing on the painful lessons learned in places such as Ferguson, Missouri, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baltimore, Chicago and Minneapolis.

But even with so much history as a guide, Roberts and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney have been unable to prevent violent clashes between protesters and police. Even now – more than two years after riots in Ferguson rocked the nation, after countless after-action reports, investigations and panel discussions by mayors who have weathered their own cities' protests - it remains extraordinarily difficult to de-escalate public anger when the local police shoot and kill another black man.

In Charlotte, the most heated debate has centered on how transparent authorities should be about their investigation into Tuesday's fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. Scott's family and police have given starkly different accounts of the shooting. Relatives say he was holding a book. Police say he was holding a gun.

At a news conference Thursday, reporters shouted repeated questions about whether police would release video footage of the incident recorded by officers' body cameras. Putney said he had no plans to release the video, citing long-standing police policy not to do so until a shooting investigation is complete and unless there was a “compelling reason.”

Putney said that he had seen the video and that it “does not give me absolute definitive visual evidence that would confirm that a person is pointing a gun.” Even if he released the video, he said, he doubted whether it would help to calm things down.

“I can tell you this,” Putney said. “There's your truth, my truth and the truth. . . . Some people have already made up their minds.” He added that police have presented some evidence already to back up their version of events. “That still didn't change the mind-set and perspective of some who wanted to break the law and tear down our city,” he said.

Tulsa takes different tack

In stark contrast to Charlotte, officials in Tulsa this week waited just two days before releasing multiple videos and recordings documenting the fatal shooting of a 40-year-old black man in that city.

A news release sent to journalists Monday included links to the videos and said in the first sentence that Tulsa police were releasing the information “in an effort to collaborate and show transparency.” At a news conference later that day, Police Chief Chuck Jordan assured reporters, “We will do the right thing.”

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett was also on message.

“It was something that we talked about over the years, that if something of this magnitude were to happen, being transparent, giving out information as quickly and as complete as possible,” the Republican mayor told local news station KOTV. “That was our desire and our decision. We don't want to be perceived as trying to cover something up.”

Other cities have also moved aggressively to release videos of officer-involved shootings as soon as possible in an effort to avoid becoming the next Ferguson.

“I'm not trying to second-guess any mayor . . . and every situation is different,” said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “But what we've seen is the faster you release that kind of information and the more the public knows about it, more often than not, it's better.”

Still, to pin everything on the decision about whether to release video is simplistic, said Darrel Stephens, who served for years as Charlotte's police chief and now serves as executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs of Police Association.

Over three days, Stephens said, he watched in anguish as his former city went up in flames. He said he feels deep empathy for Putney and other city officials.

“There are good reasons why you wouldn't necessarily release video,” Stephens said, to avoid tainting the accounts of people who claim to be eyewitnesses, for example, or to avoid tainting the prosecution and potential jurors.

What is missed amid the controversy and hand-wringing over best practices and how best to defuse anger on the streets is the fact that these incidents continue to evolve.

Just last year, for example, Stephens said Putney found himself in an almost identical situation in Charlotte. Many African-Americans were angry when a jury deadlocked and did not convict a white officer who had shot and killed a black man in 2013.

Back then, Putney and Roberts took many of the same steps they are taking now to reach out to the community. Then, they managed to calm that anger and channel it into improvements in police-community relations.

Putney “did an admirable job. And it was the same moves as he's doing now,” Stephens said. “What's changed is everything else.”

For example, the amplifying effect of social media continues to grow, he said. As does the level of national anger over such shootings, each of which draws more media attention and more national activists rushing to the scene. “It's a whole new world, and it keeps changing,” he said.

It is a world that Charlotte's mayor is trying desperately to figure out. On Wednesday night, just hours before Charlotte erupted in a second night of violence, Roberts spoke about steps she is taking to meet with community activists, position officers to prevent more violence and defuse the underlying anger.

“I understand the anger,” she said in a telephone interview between meetings, her voice cracking at times with weariness. “A family is now missing a brother, son, a dad.”

She said she was trying to find a compromise on the video, asking to see it herself and asking that police also show it to a handful of leaders from groups such as the local NAACP.

Roberts said she believes the anger on her city's streets - the bloody clashes, looting and street bonfires - is being driven by this nationwide outrage over repeated shootings of black men by police. But the anger has local roots as well, she acknowledged.

As mayor of a city that remains starkly segregated by wealth and race, Roberts said she has tried to narrow those gaps and bridge the resentment and distrust built up over years of disparate police enforcement and economic inequalities.

“We still have discrimination in our society. We still have disparity. We're working really hard to ameliorate that,” Roberts said. “We have many different groups working on closing the economic gap in Charlotte, people working on the gap in schools and education.”

Like so many mayors in the same situation these past two years, Roberts said she has tried to remain optimistic. She continues to search for answers.

On her wall, she said, hangs a quote that she has considered frequently in the past week. “One of the best ways to get me to achieve something is to tell me I can't,” it reads.

“It's been a tough year for me,” Roberts said. “But if I can help, I will feel like my life has had a purpose.”

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/police-729891-charlotte-roberts.html

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Ohio

Praise, prior shootings in Ohio officer's file

by Ann Sanner

COLUMBUS, Ohio --- The Columbus police officer who fatally shot a 13-year-old black boy during an armed robbery investigation once helped save the life of another black boy the same age, police records show. He has also been involved in other shootings, including another fatality, in which he was cleared of wrongdoing .

Officer Bryan Mason, a member of the force for almost 10 years, shot Tyre King multiple times Sept. 14 after the boy ran from investigators and pulled out a BB gun that looked like a real firearm, police have said. The boy's death has inflamed tensions over police treatment of blacks in Ohio's largest city and adds to a list of killings of black males by police that are attracting national attention.

Mason's prior shootings have been reported by The Columbus Dispatch. But police documents obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request provide additional details about the circumstances and give insight into Mason's history as an officer.

Mason, who is white, has received high marks in performance evaluations, the records show. His other shootings include the 2012 death of a white man holding another white man at gunpoint, two nonfatal shootings and the shooting of a dog that bit a fellow officer.

His personnel file shows he was honored by the department for "quick actions" that helped save the life of a 13-year-old black boy who tried to hang himself in 2012. Mason and another officer immediately performed CPR until medical help arrived.

Mason, 31, was put on administrative leave immediately after Tyre's shooting — standard procedure after police shootings. Attorneys for the boy's family have called for an independent investigation and question whether there's more to Mason's involvement in other shootings.

"How many shootings is too many before the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office and City of Columbus step in and ask the Department of Justice to investigate this shooting and this officer," attorney Sean Walton said in a written statement.

The head of the local police union defends Mason, saying he did what he was trained to do under the circumstances.

There are "some very bad people in this world doing very bad things, and Bryan is not afraid to go out and address those issues to make our community safer," said Jason Pappas, the president of the police union representing Mason. Pappas said the officer is assigned to a special team that responds to higher priorities in the city and provides support to officers on patrol.

Pappas said Thursday that Mason has apparently returned to work.

In his nearly four years as union president, Pappas said, he has not been aware of any disciplinary problems on Mason's part. He was part of citizen complaints to the department, as is often the case with officers, according to copies of internal affairs records. In most cases, his actions were found to be within police policy.

Pappas said Mason's shootings were all ruled justified, and he expects Tyre's will be, too.

Columbus resident Jason Blackburn said he owes Mason his life after the officer shot and killed the man who held him at gunpoint in December 2012.

"I have five children," Blackburn, 45, said in an interview. "And if it wasn't for him, they wouldn't have a father."

Mason gave the suspect three chances to drop his weapon, Blackburn recalled. "I was surprised he even waited that long."

Highlights from Mason's personnel file, incident reports and other police documents:

— In 2009, Mason was among officers who returned fire on a white man who later killed himself. The suspect fired an AK-47 out of a window at officers after he fled from a traffic stop. One officer was shot in the cheek, and another was hit in a bulletproof vest. Mason earned a department award for his role in containing "the violent situation."

— In 2013, Mason shot a 22-year-old black man who allegedly ran from a vehicle during a traffic stop and then pulled a gun on the officer. A police review board found Mason's actions within policy. The man was shot in the hip and survived. He told police he never pointed the gun at Mason, records show. Mason told investigators he feared for his life.

— Mason has met or exceeded the police department's performance standards. A May evaluation notes that he "generally maintains composure under stress" and demonstrates "exceptional verbal skills" in defusing "potentially hostile situations."

— People he has helped have praised his actions. One woman said Mason and another officer showed understanding and care in helping her during a "psychotic breakdown." Another woman said Mason and other officers did "an outstanding job" in ridding a park of gang members.

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/article103635037.html

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Opinion

6 questions to ask when you hire a police chief

by Cedric L. Alexander

It has happened again. Two lives taken. Families devastated. Communities outraged. Two officers who probably wish they had been anywhere but where they were.

This is not the time or place to pass judgment on the killings of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina. Judgment will come -- in time. But, for the present, we confront appearances, what our eyes and ears tell us. It's what public relations people call "optics." Every city, every incident is different, truly. But the optics never seem to change. Police officers interact with a black male, who ends up shot to death.

If it can be a tough time to be a black male in America, it is also a tough time to be a police officer. And a tough time to be a police chief. Too often these days, police-community relations are poisoned by implicit bias. In too many American communities, police look at certain categories of individuals -- citizens they are sworn to serve and protect -- as threats rather than human beings. And in too many neighborhoods, residents see the police officer as a uniform, a badge, a gun and a danger, not as a man or woman who has boldly volunteered to be the guardian of their lives and property.

Worst of all, nothing seems to be changing at a time when change is absolutely critical to the healing of police-community relations. We are, all of us -- regardless of race or profession or station in life -- victims of a vicious cycle. Officer-involved shootings breed distrust, distrust poisons police-community relations, toxic relations inject every interchange between officer and citizen with the potential for a lethal outcome, and every shooting confirms the distrust and spreads the poison.

Breaking a vicious cycle requires change, and change needs a change leader. Traditionally, mayors, police boards and search committees have not searched for change leaders to lead police departments. Police chiefs are all about law and order, after all, not change and transformation.

Well, that was then, and this is now.

Mayors, police boards and search committees need to put "change leader" at the top of their list of must-haves. And identifying change leaders is done by asking the right questions:

Ask about bias

There are mean and misguided people who should never be police officers, let alone police leaders. Ask the hard questions to identify those who have trouble dealing with diversity. But be aware that researchers in the emerging field of social neuroscience have shown that some bias is hard-wired into every human brain. What sets effective police executives apart is awareness of their own biases and the ability to work around them.

Ask about accountability

I think about accountability in three dimensions:

1. Everyone in a police department needs to be accountable for understanding the law and acting according to it. Chiefs, however, are also accountable for fostering a professional culture in which law and policy are executed faithfully and without exception.

2. Anyone who leads a modern police force should be big on science and data to measure results of policies and procedures. Objective metrics go a long way toward reinforcing accountability.

3. Accountability requires everyone from chief to line officer to build trust and legitimacy with the public in everything they do.

Ask about procedural justice

Not only do we need to exercise our authority by the book while making a measurable positive impact on "crime and disorder," but we need to act with procedural justice -- fairness in everything we do to resolve disputes. In the Final Report of the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing (PDF), on which I serve, we wrote: "(P)eople are more likely to obey the law when they believe that those who are enforcing it have the legitimate authority to tell them what to do."

Ask about working positively with police unions

Unions provide important representation and professional protection for police officers. Unfortunately, a union's defense of officer members sometimes conflicts with police-community relations. Mayors and search committees need to ask anyone who wants to be a chief how he or she will enlist the unions as partners in building positive community relations.

Ask about adaptability

Today, every human endeavor takes place in an environment of change. Policing is no exception, and that means it is important that law enforcement leaders avoid rigidity and embrace agility. They need to be adaptable to the technologies that play an ever-increasing role in police work. Even more critically, they need to be adaptable to our intensely diverse society. Whatever a chief's gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race and national background, he or she must serve a richly varied population. This requires not only an absence of prejudice, but an abundant presence of understanding and empathy. A chief has to be an enthusiastic student of people. What drives such enthusiasm? Curiosity -- an indispensable trait at every level of police work.

Ask about police reform

Start by asking for a definition. As I see it, meaningful reform begins with a community orientation. I'm in favor of community policing, an approach that advocates strategies to support police-community partnerships and pragmatic problem-solving techniques. The object is to partner with the community to address conditions that exacerbate crime, social disorder and fear of crime.

The beauty of community policing is that it can begin with something as simple as a respectful few words between an officer and a resident on any street corner. Individual officers can work wonders to create positive relationships with the community. Ultimately, however, community policing has to involve the entire police force. Community policing is about individual relationships as well as relationships between police leaders and the leaders and influencers within the community, especially the leaders of churches, businesses, schools and professions.

The conundrum at the heart of 21st-century policing is that the most challenged communities present the most urgent demands for public safety, yet they tend to be the ones that most strongly resent the methods police employ to provide for public safety. Community policing can transform dysfunctional police-community relations. In nearly 40 years of police work, I've seen it work time after time.

Do you want to know if the applicant for chief of police believes in community-oriented policing? Ask for success stories. The stories I want to hear are those that give me hope that we can meaningfully change the grim narrative surrounding too many officer-involved shootings. The change has to involve both police and community, but it needs to begin with the police -- and that change always begins at the top, with the right chief.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/22/opinions/six-questions-potential-police-chiefs-alexander/

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Yahoo 'state' hackers stole data from 500 million users

by BBC NEWS

The breach included swathes of personal information, including names and emails, as well as “unencrypted security questions and answers”.

The hack took place in 2014 but has only now been made public.

The FBI has confirmed it is investigating the claims.

Stolen data includes names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and encrypted passwords, but not credit card data, Yahoo said.

It said the information was "stolen by what we believe is a state-sponsored actor" but did not say which country it held responsible.

Password change urged

News of a possible major attack on the technology firm emerged in August when a hacker known as "Peace" was apparently attempting to sell information on 200 million Yahoo accounts.

On Thursday, Yahoo confirmed the breach was far bigger than first thought.

Yahoo is recommending all users should change their passwords if they have not done so since 2014.

In the UK, ISPs Sky and BT issued warnings for customers that they may be affected by the breach as Yahoo provides email services for both ISPs. Sky advised all its customers to change their passwords as Yahoo is behind all Sky.com email accounts.

BT said it was carrying out its own investigation but advised the "minority" of its customers who use Yahoo mail to change their passwords.

~~~

Questions for Yahoo - Dave Lee, BBC North America technology reporter, San Francisco

The nature of the information stolen feels somewhat run-of-the-mill - no payment info, and passwords were encrypted. Good. But the chain of events leading up to this unprecedented announcement gives rise to some incredibly pressing questions for Yahoo.

Why did it take so long to confirm the hack and its scale? Why did it take so long to tell users and prompt them to protect themselves?

State-sponsored attacks are typically for political, not financial gain. So why were details reportedly being sold online? What evidence is there that it was state-sponsored?

Verizon, which has agreed to buy Yahoo, said it had not been told until a couple of days ago - why not? And why is Marissa Mayer, a chief executive who has presided over bad deals and now the biggest breach in internet history, still in charge?

In July, Yahoo was sold to US telecoms giant Verizon for $4.8bn (£3.7bn).

Verizon told the BBC it had learned of the hack "within the last two days" and said it had "limited information".

It added: "Until then, we are not in position to further comment."

Yahoo said in a statement: "Online intrusions and thefts by state-sponsored actors have become increasingly common across the technology industry."

Reuters reported three unnamed US intelligence officials as saying they believed the attack was state-sponsored because it was similar to previous hacks linked to Russian intelligence agencies.

Nikki Parker, vice-president at security company Covata, said: "Yahoo is likely to come under intense scrutiny from regulators, the media and public and rightly so. Corporations can't shy away from data breaches and they must hold their hands up and show that they are committed to resolving the problem."

She added: "Let's hope the ink is dry on the contract with Verizon."

~~~

Top 10 previous breaches

•  MySpace accounts - 359m

•  LinkedIn accounts - 164m

•  Adobe accounts - 152m

•  Badoo accounts - 112m

•  VK accounts - 93m

•  Dropbox accounts - 68m

•  tumblr accounts - 65m

•  iMesh accounts - 49m

•  Fling accounts - 40m

•  Last.fm accounts - 37m

Source - haveibeenpwned.com

~~~

Questions are being asked about the length of time it took Yahoo to fully acknowledge the breach.

"It is really worrying that a breach from 2014 can have gone undetected for so long," said Prof Alan Woodward from the University of Surrey.

"It is also surprising the public statement took so long to appear."

"I would have thought most companies had learned by now that early disclosure is better, even if you have to revise and update as you learn more."

The scale of the hack eclipses other recent, major tech breaches - such as MySpace (359 million), LinkedIn (164 million) and Adobe (152 million).

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37447016

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Illinois

The rise and fall of community policing in Chicago

Chicago used to be at the vanguard of community policing. But more than two decades after the strategy was launched, CAPS is a shadow of its former self.

by Nissa Rhee, Manny Ramos and Andrea Salcedo

On a mild morning in early May, two teenage boys sat on the porch of a house in West Humboldt Park on busy Chicago Avenue. From there, they could see a string of abandoned stores, boarded up and painted in bright colors. Occasionally, a CTA bus would pass in front of them, carrying commuters from the distant edges of the city to the Magnificent Mile shopping district eight miles to the east. A heavy breeze shook the blooming tree in front of the house.

At 10:30 AM, someone walked up to the porch and started shooting at them. The 16-year-old, Eddy Brooks, was shot in the head and later died in the hospital, according to Chicago Tribune reports. The 17-year-old was hit in the calf and thigh but survived the encounter.

Neighbors say they had long known the house to be a drug den. In the months leading up to the shooting, they had repeatedly complained about the building to the police and attended meetings of CAPS, the city's community policing unit, to demand that officers do something about the young men who congregated there.

CAPS community organizer John Campos was on his way to one of these public gatherings on the afternoon of May 6, when he saw yellow tape around the house. Two uniformed officers were taking pictures of the blood-splattered porch stairs. Despite a decades-long community policing system in place for reporting and preventing crime, violence had prevailed that day at the house on Chicago Avenue.

Community policing has long been a matter of life and death in Chicago. When it's worked, researchers have found that communities of color report less fear of crime and better relations with the police, which can translate into improved crime prevention and fewer shootings. And in a year when shootings have skyrocketed and community trust of the police has been severely damaged by the release of a series of videos capturing police shootings, it's been touted by politicians as a powerful crime-fighting strategy.

"Chicago is where the whole idea of community policing began," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a speech on police accountability on December 9, 2015, just two weeks after the release of the Laquan McDonald video rocked the city and sparked a crisis in police-community relations. "It remains the best and most comprehensive approach we have in changing the everyday conditions that breed crime and violence and then breed mistrust."

But nine months after that speech, an analysis by City Bureau and the Reader finds CAPS in crisis. Chicago's once-trailblazing community policing program has been hollowed out by years of budget cuts and restructuring. Stretched thin, the police department no longer has the money necessary to reach out to the community and quickly follow up on citizen complaints such as the ones made about the house on Chicago Avenue. Neighborhoods like those on the city's west side struggle with far fewer resources and institutional knowledge than in previous years. CAPS today is an uneven patchwork of programs around the city. The result has been the destruction of the trust and goodwill the police department had built in the early years of CAPS.

Arguably, neighborhoods such as West Humboldt Park need strong police-community relations more than ever. An open-air drug market plagues the area, and residents live in constant fear of violence. District 11, where the May shooting occurred, has had twice as many murders so far this year as it had in the same period last year. As of September 15, CPD reports that there have been 65 murders in District 11 this year. That accounts for around one-tenth of the 519 homicides the city has had, as of September 19, so far this year. But while residents are eager to tackle crime, with CAPS a shell of its former self, they no longer have the support from the community policing program that they once did.

"It comes down to a question," Campos says. "Are our voices being heard on the west side?"

Asked for comment, Emanuel's office deferred to CPD. Meanwhile, the head of CAPS, deputy chief of community policing Eric Washington, has dismissed the idea that the program is in crisis, arguing that "Chicago has always been at the forefront of community policing."

"Community policing started in Chicago in 1993," Washington said in an interview at CPD headquarters. "We were at the forefront then and I believe we are at the forefront now."

Community policing got its start in the 80s and 90s as an innovative approach to reducing crime. Cities from New York to Seattle to Cleveland tried establishing community policing strategies during this time but failed to create strong stand-alone programs because of a lack of government funding or support.

In Chicago, however, Mayor Richard M. Daley was a staunch advocate of community policing and fueled the growth of CAPS.

The city established the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy in April 1993 during a period of high crime and poor public relations with the police. Chicago logged 940 murders in 1992 and 850 in 1993.

In a "Strategic plan for reinventing the Chicago Police Department," released in October 1993, Daley praised community policing as a "new, proactive approach to preventing crimes before they occur." He wrote that a "historic change was taking place in Chicago" with the adoption of CAPS, and that while "community policing means reinventing the way the Chicago Police Department works, it also means reinventing the way all City agencies, community members, and the police work with each other."

The strategy was rooted in a belief that communities can and should play a role in preventing crime and maintaining a safe environment. Through regular neighborhood beat meetings and district advisory councils, CAPS allowed police officers to work directly with community members to solve persistent problems like drugs and graffiti. Strategies ranged from playing basketball with neighborhood kids to holding regular community meetings and improving transparency in police operations and crime data. At the root of these strategies was relationship building, with police officers taking the time to engage with youth, business owners, and community residents.

After a brief experimental phase, CAPS was rolled out to all police districts in 1994. Between January and May 1995, more than 9,000 officers completed a three-day training on community policing's approach to problem solving.

In 1996 and 1997, CPD expanded its civilian staff in order to improve community outreach and increase participation in beat meetings. More staff members were also brought on for additional CAPS programs like court advocacy and projects targeting gang and drug hot spots.

By 1999, CAPS had a budget of $12.5 million, about 1.4 percent of CPD's total budget of $907 million—a small but significant slice. Each district was assigned a sergeant focused solely on community policing. The program was no longer dependent on the goodwill of the mayor's office, and had an established bureaucracy that could address the needs of each district. The response from the community was by and large positive, but some communities found CAPS more useful than others.

Researchers at Northwestern University's Institute for Policy Research studied CAPS between 1994 and 2003 and in 2004 published a report that found that the program had had a substantial impact on crime levels and police-community relations during its first decade. They found that African-Americans reported a 10 percent decrease in what they saw as crime problems after CAPS was created. African-Americans also experienced a 22 percent decrease in fear of crime in their neighborhood. Whites also saw decreases in these measures during this time, though Latinos didn't. (Researchers speculated that Latinos didn't respond as well due to a combination of factors including language barriers, fear of deportation, and a young, mobile population that wasn't interested in attending beat meetings.)

Northwestern researchers also found an improvement in how communities saw social order and physical decay in the first decade of the CAPS program. African-Americans reported a 60 percent decrease in perceived social disorder and a 30 percent decrease in physical decay problems in their neighborhoods.

Even more significant was the change in police favorability ratings among these communities during this time. African-­Americans, Latinos, and whites all felt that officers were more responsive after the establishment of CAPS than before its creation.

"From 1993 or so well into the 2000s, Chicago had the largest and most impressive community policing program in the world," says Northwestern University's Wesley Skogan, who led the CAPS study.

The early 2000s would prove to be CAPS's high point, however. While other cities invested heavily in community policing programs, Chicago began to pull back from its once-powerful tool.

"The energy went out of it after that time," Skogan says. "There was a new chief of police [Phil Cline] who wasn't interested in it. . . . And the mayor got sidetracked by a crime wave that was on the cover of the Chicago Tribune ." Violence spiked again in 2001 with 667 homicides, breaking a six-year trend of a decrease in murders.

Following the rise in violence, Daley took a hard line on crime and focused the police department's efforts on guns, gangs, and homicides. Money was pulled away from CAPS and never returned. This past April, the Police Accountability Task Force convened by Emanuel gave its assessment of the state of policing in Chicago. The task force noted in its final report that "attendance [at CAPS events] dropped off significantly after 2000." (Cline declined to comment for this story. Daley didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.)

In 2010, Daley moved 111 officers from CAPS to street patrol in order to address what he described in a press release as "the most immediate and pressing problem facing many of our neighborhoods—violence in our streets and in our homes." Daley promised that the move would increase efficiency while at the same time ensuring "that the original goals and objectives of CAPS are met."

A Chicago News Cooperative/ New York Times story from early January 2011 noted that because of budget cuts and shrinking staff, fewer community meetings were being held.

"The program has pretty much been eviscerated, which is tragic," 49th Ward alderman Joe Moore said at the time. "There's no substitute for an engaged citizenry and police officers taking an active role in preventing crime."

By the time Emanuel took office in May 2011, the budget for CAPS had fallen to $4.7 million, a little more than a third of what it had been in 1999. Meanwhile, CPD's total budget had jumped to $1.3 billion from $907 million in '99.

But in January 2012, Emanuel announced the "revitalization" of CAPS in order to restore "an effective community policing structure to the Department while providing the best possible services to the residents of Chicago."

"Community policing is a philosophy, and the strength of that philosophy within the Chicago Police Department and in our communities is more critical now than ever before," Emanuel said in a statement at the time. "CAPS is an important partnership between residents and police, and it's time to revitalize the program by giving District Commanders responsibility and authority to tailor programs for individual communities."

Under the new CAPS structure, community policing resources once controlled by police headquarters were moved to individual districts. Each district's CAPS program was to be handled by the commander, a CAPS sergeant, two officers, a community organizer, and a youth services provider. District commanders were given the responsibility of choosing which CAPS programs they would fund and which they would stop supporting, a strategy that the department hoped would make CAPS more responsive to local needs.

(Garry McCarthy, who served as Emanuel's police superintendent from 2011 to late 2015, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.)

While the "revitalization" changed the structure of CAPS, it didn't alter the downward trend in funding for community policing. In 2012, the year after Emanuel took office, the budget for CAPS was slashed by $178,497 from the year before. In 2016, CAPS has a budget of $3.9 million, less than a third of the funding it had in 1999 and 17 percent less than when Emanuel took office. The police department's overall budget has ballooned to $1.45 billion today; CAPS funding represents just 0.3 percent of CPD's overall budget.

"Emanuel kept CAPS in place, but there's no money there," says Jimmy Simmons, who has volunteered as a CAPS beat meeting facilitator in District 11 for 22 years. "They don't put any money into it. They continue to do these [beat] meetings, but that's it."

Emanuel's 2012 changes to CAPS also resulted in a patchwork of programming spread unevenly across districts that inadvertently isolated CAPS volunteers and staff from their colleagues in other parts of town.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, CPD said that each CAPS district received between $7,000 and $9,500 in 2016 to "support local community policing activities." Funding levels are dependent on "the size of the district, levels of crime, particularly violent crime, previous spending patterns and other factors."

But in analyzing CAPS programs for the first seven months of 2016, City Bureau and the Reader found striking variations in the activity level across districts. Several districts had more than 100 public events in the first seven months of this year, while others had fewer than 40. Our analysis showed that the number of events a district held didn't correlate with the amount of money it received from CPD; some districts that received less funding had many events, while other districts that received more funding held fewer. Nor did programming levels in a district correlate with crime rates. Instead, interviews with CAPS volunteers and staff suggest that programming levels are determined more by the interests of district commanders.

Plus, CAPS teams now work in what one facilitator described as "silos" in each district, rarely collaborating with their colleagues. Campos recalls going out on "wolf pack" missions with organizers from other districts before 2013 to address problematic areas together. Now, however, he rarely talks to CAPS employees outside of his own district.

"We don't even have the opportunity to learn from each other," Campos says. "Like, 'Hey John, what are you guys doing in [District] 11 to do this?' We used to get together monthly and have meetings. We don't do that [anymore]."

On a Wednesday afternoon in July, two police officers roll a dusty portable chalkboard with SWAT printed on it to the front of a meeting room in the basement of District 11's west-side headquarters.

"How many chairs and rows do you think we need?" asks one of the officers.

"Ain't going to be that many people here anyways," says the other, as he arranges 36 blue chairs in the middle of the room. Indeed, when the meeting begins a few minutes later, only a dozen chairs are occupied.

District 11's Expanded Anti-Violence Initiative meeting wasn't always so poorly attended. Campos says that as recently as seven years ago, between 40 and 50 people would regularly attend the meeting. At that time a five- or six-person panel of community policing experts would help facilitate the initiative. Now it's led by Campos, beat facilitator Simmons, and the district's CAPS sergeant, who is out of the office on this particular day.

In the past, every district held monthly antiviolence meetings. That changed with the decreasing budget and recent restructuring, which allowed district commanders to choose whether or not to hold them. District 11 is now one of the few places that still does, but it's only the "skeletal remains" of the program, Campos says. A previous commander got rid of the program altogether; it was only reinstated when a new commander came in.

EAVI was originally envisioned as an ideal venue for community policing, a "beat meeting on steroids," as Campos puts it. Neighborhood leaders would meet regularly with police officers and CAPS staff and delineate problems in the neighborhood. People would break into groups around topics like public safety, community outreach, and problem buildings, and come up with solutions. Both community members and police officers were responsible for thinking up solutions and taking on "homework" that contributed to the solution. This could be as simple as finding out who a resident needed to speak to in order to get a stop sign installed on a certain corner, or talking to the principal of a school where young men loitered and caused trouble. When the group met again the following month, its members would be graded on how well they'd completed their homework and how close they were to resolving the issue.

Campos says that while those early violence-prevention meetings were "pretty successful" at addressing problems and holding people accountable, the low turnout in recent years has made the program less effective. Someone assigned an important piece of homework in one meeting could easily not show up to the next meeting, making accountability difficult.

Leticia Segura makes a point of attending the meetings, despite the fact that they fall in the middle of a workday. She walks into this one a little late, but is immediately recognized. The 44-year-old has lived in the area for more than a decade, and got involved in CAPS a year ago when she started having trouble with drug dealers near her house.

The dealers were hiding drugs in the alley, she says, and preventing her from backing her car out of the garage. When they began concealing drugs in her yard, she says, she feared for her family's safety, and began attending every CAPS meeting she could find. She called 911 frequently, determined to get the police department's attention.

Her persistence paid off. After more than three months, during which she asked the department for help, police raided the drug dealers and cleared the area.

Segura says the experience made her appreciate the power of community policing. Then, seeing that her local CAPS office was short-staffed, she started volunteering there, answering phones and doing administrative work.

CAPS "is spread very thin," Segura says. "You have only so many officers who can do so much. If we had more police help and more money, I think we could do way more things."

CAPS did indeed do more things in the past, Simmons says—when they had a bigger budget.

"CAPS was high on the list [back then]," he recalls of the 90s. "Oh, you had your little drug dealers and shootings, but nothing like this because the people were committed."

CAPS had turned his neighborhood around then, Simmons says. People weren't afraid to leave their houses, and they felt respected by the police. Thanks to the good relationship with the police, he says, the community was the "eyes and ears" of the department and helped officers solve and prevent crimes.

But when funding for community policing started decreasing, Simmons says that CAPS stopped being the cornerstone of policing in his district. The number of public meetings between officers and community members decreased, and their relationship suffered for it. Districts had to rely on donations to support bonding events like barbecues, and began enlisting volunteers like Segura to answer phones and do paperwork in their CAPS offices.

Looking at the cold and half-empty room, Simmons knits his brows.

"I think [CAPS] can do a much better job than what is being done," he says.

Now, facing pressure over rising homicide numbers and poor community relations, CPD is once again looking to community policing to alleviate its problems. Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in April that CPD had made a mistake by downsizing CAPS and that the department is working on "reinvigorating" the program.

"While CAPS has been successful for decades, enhancements are being implemented to forge better relationships between police and the community," CPD told City Bureau and the Reader in a statement this week. "Over the next several months, you can expect to see more on this as the department will develop a specific community affairs platform that tackles some of the very challenging obstacles and tensions that exist between communities and the officers as well as implement better programs to work with young people and minority communities."

Still, just what the "new CAPS" will look like is unclear. So far the department has been vague and sometimes contradictory about the scale of the changes in store. In an interview at a CAPS event in August, Johnson had said his department was working on revamping CAPS, though he was "not really ready to roll out the actual details" of the change. In its statement to City Bureau and the Reader , CPD said that the formal strategy that will guide CAPS in the future is "still a work in progress."

Yet in an interview after a community meeting in July, CAPS deputy chief Eric Washington said, "We are not changing anything." In a second interview held at CPD headquarters in August, Washington hesitated to even use the acronym "CAPS" to describe Chicago's community policing program, and hinted that the letters would soon stand for something besides the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy.

"Because that 'alternative' is still there, I don't say 'CAPS' right now," Washington said. Both Washington and Johnson have said that going forward, community policing will no longer be an "alternative" strategy for CPD, but rather the guiding philosophy of the department.

"Every officer that works for CPD should be engaging in some type of CAPS activity," Johnson said. He didn't elaborate on what that work should entail, or how it would be paid for, however.

The talk of making CAPS a department­wide doctrine and not just an "alternative strategy" may stem in part from the Police Accountability Task Force's review of CAPS in its final report, in which it asserted that community policing should be "treated as a core philosophy throughout CPD."

"Community policing cannot be relegated to a small, underfunded program," the report stated.

Since the CAPS "brand is significantly damaged" and its "civilian staff has dwindled to the point of ineffectiveness," the task force recommended getting rid of the program altogether. (The task force is not the first to call for the death of CAPS. Last year, District 14 commander Marc Buslik said of the program, "We need to drive a stake right through its heart.")

The task force recommended replacing CAPS with what it called "Community Empowerment and Engagement Districts." These CEEDs, one for each of Chicago's 22 police districts, would be more responsive to community needs, the task force argued. But there has been no indication that the police department or the mayor's office is considering such a change.

Meanwhile, as CAPS withers, police departments across the country are bolstering their community policing offices with the support of the U.S. Department of Justice. Last year, President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing included community policing as one of its six pillars for police reform and recommended that community policing be "infused throughout the culture and organizational structure of law enforcement agencies."

On a hot afternoon in August, Superintendent Johnson grills hamburgers and sausages in a park set up for the 11th District's National Night Out. Nearby, Campos applies temporary tattoos of the CAPS logo to children's arms, and seniors take refuge from the sun under white tents. The event, which is held by police departments across the country, aims to create stronger community-police bonds.

"We are celebrating the community for being our right hand and helping us solve crimes," explains Daniel Allen, District 11 CAPS sergeant and an organizer of the event.

For some, like a 13-year-old named Xavier, the event marks the first time residents will meet a police officer. For others, it's a chance to learn about ways they can help prevent crime and become involved in CAPS.

Campos says he remains optimistic about the power of community policing to make neighborhoods like his more safe. He says that community policing can "absolutely" help reduce the homicide rate and that he saw its power at the peak of CAPS, when the program "had the resources [and] ways of pulling in the community."

"It's like building a better mousetrap," Campos says. "We don't need new or fancy methods for improving public safety, he argues, because the mousetrap "has already been invented."

"The philosophy of community policing should work," he says, "if that philosophy translates into action like it's supposed to do." v

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/caps-cpd-community-policing-analysis/Content?oid=23635982

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Arizona

TPD continues community policing to build relationships, prevent riots

by Alyx Dote

TUCSON- Police continue to focus on a community policing strategy in order to foster relationships within the community.

Tucson Police Chief, Christopher Magnus, appeared at a public meet and greet Thursday night to answer the public's questions directly.

"Community engagement can happen face-to-face, which is most important," said Magnus. "It can also happen online if we are really going to keep up with people's needs and expectations."

Magnus said he encourages his officers to have a Twitter presence in order to connect with the community.

He also said to solve problems within the community, people must work together. He encourages those with ideas to reach out to the department.

"There is no police department alone that can solve public safety problems, crime problems or traffic problems," he said. "We really have to do it as a team."

Magnus also explained that community policing can prevent riots, like those happening in Charlotte.

"If you are waiting until the crisis occurs, if we are waiting until that moment before we develop theses relationships, it is too late," he said.

Magnus added that in addition to his focus on community policing, he hopes to improve the department in other ways. He said the department currently employs just under 900 officers. He hopes to gradually add a couple hundred more officers.

http://www.kvoa.com/story/33164404/tpd-continues-community-policing-to-build-relationships-prevent-riots

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Florida

Fort Myers PC believes community policing could reduce crime

by Levi Ismail

Fort Myers Police Chief Derrick Diggs invited two consultants to help find a way to curb violent crime, a first step in coming up with a plan for the future.

But there isn't a clear path forward.

Diggs believes in reducing crime it's going to take community policing. And before he makes any major policy changes, Diggs wants to hear firsthand from the people he's protecting.

One community member told the chief they want to feel valued by the department.

“They need to step up and clean out their own house,” one community member said, “just like every other institution out there.”

“This is just not a police problem,” Diggs said, “This is a community problem.”

One of the consultants Diggs brought in, Morris Jenkins, worked with the chief for years in Ohio using programs like a citizens review board.

“That is another vehicle that can be used to deal with the perceived police abuse,” Jenkins said. “Or real police abuse.”

Community members said that if the police want to get closer to the community, they have to start with children.

“As a community and school district, we have to look at those other 133 hours, plus the whole summer, plus the breaks,” said Fort Myers Middle School Principal Ron Schuyler. “And what we're going to do to help influence these kids.”

Jenkins said one way to help is to take teens who have been in jail and help them find jobs.

“It is a process used to repair the harm,” he said, “rather than looking strictly at punishing people.”

While more body camera and surveillance throughout the city are on the agenda, Diggs said progress begins with people.

“To have community policing,” the police chief said, “we have to have partnerships, especially in those communities that are in dire need of our services.”

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/33162604/fort-myers-pc-believes-community-policing-could-reduce-crime

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Pennsylvania

Harrisburg researchers suggest community policing to build trust in police

by Kalisha DeVan

Penn State Harrisburg School of Public Affairs researchers, Jonathan Lee and Jennifer Gibbs, both assistant professors of criminal justice, say that for police to forge better relationships with the communities they serve, they must decrease “social distance.”

Lee and Gibbs define social distance as the perceived closeness, or lack thereof, one has with the police. Social distance decreases with an increase in informal interactions. The more social distance, they say, the lower the confidence community members have in police. The less social distance, the more confidence.

In a recent study, “Race and attitudes toward police: the mediating effect of social distance,” the researchers assert that widespread research finds that members of minority groups, such as African Americans, have lower confidence in police than whites do. They maintain that social distance may be an important, yet untested, factor. Their paper examines the mediating effect that social distance may have over other factors that affect attitudes, such as race, age, gender, and various interactions with police.

Social distance is not a new concept in social sciences, the researchers said, but it was an important factor in studying public attitudes toward police, especially in an era that focuses on community policing.

“Community-oriented policing is a driving force of 21 st century policing in the United States,” said Lee. “Police cannot practically deal with all crime; they need help and support from the public. They cannot earn that support without reaching out to the community in a favorable, amicable way.

“Despite the fact that this has been a highlight of the policing paradigm, we don't have many measurements of how successfully it has been implemented.”

That is where social distance comes into play. Lee said that social distance factors can help measure how well police agencies are getting out into their communities, talking to neighbors, understanding their situations and plight, and gaining confidence and trust.

And, social distance has the potential to mediate the relationship between race and public confidence in the police, Lee and Gibbs said.

Measuring attitudes toward police

Lee and Gibbs surveyed a random sample of 1,500 Penn State students about various factors such as their contact with police, attitudes toward the police and the students' lifestyles. A variety of races were surveyed, however, whites made up the majority of respondents (81 percent), so the researchers split race into “white” and “minority.” Gender and age were also included. There were more males (56 percent) than females. The average age in the sample was 21 years old.

They measured confidence in police using indicators including, “how much confidence do you have in the police,” “I am satisfied with the police,” and “the police are responsive to the community concerns in my neighborhood.”

Social distance was measured with three indicators of positive interest and relational distance – “I have at least one police officer among my family members,” “I have at least one police officer among my close friends,” and “I personally know at least one police officer in my neighborhood who is neither my family member nor my close friend.”

Negative contact with police was measured by three indicators asking about individual experience of “unreasonable stops,” “insulting language,” or “physical force” by police officers in the past two years.

The researchers also measured exposure to media coverage of police misconduct, asking how often the respondent heard or read about police use of excessive force, racial profiling, and corruption. More than half of the respondents reported they had heard or read such coverage.

The survey also measured criminal victimization, with most students indicating that they had not been a victim of crime in the last two years.

Lee and Gibbs found that race, coupled with negative contacts and exposure to media coverage of police misconduct, was the only significant demographic factor, with minority respondents having lower confidence in police than white respondents. Minority students also showed more negative contacts with police, more negative vicarious experiences, and more exposure to media coverage of police misconduct. Males had more negative contacts with police than females.

Negative contact and vicarious experience appeared to decrease confidence in police.

The researchers then added social distance to the model and found that there was no difference in confidence in police among white and minority students. While minority students reported less familiarity with police than white students, greater social distance equaled lower confidence in police no matter the race.

The researchers found that greater social distance had a significant diminishing effect on confidence in the police but that race became no longer significant if that social distance gap is closed, proving that social distance is a mediating factor in the relationship between race and confidence in the police.

“The further apart people felt from police, the lower the confidence they had in the police,” Gibbs said. “At that point, race didn't matter, what mattered more was whether or not you had a personal relationship with a police officer.”

Lee and Gibbs say that closing the social distance gap may help decrease crime and increase citizen obedience to police. They suggest that police focus efforts on improving police-public relations through community policing.

Changes in policing can narrow social distance

Gibbs asserts that among other things, militarization of police has created a growing social gap between the police and citizens, encouraging citizens to ignore police directives and disrespect the police. Also, when police view a greater social distance between themselves and the public, they perceive the public as more dangerous, which can affect their interactions with the public and further undermine this relationship.

“In the 1990s, community policing emerged as a popular response to the rising crime rates resulting from the crack cocaine epidemic,” Gibbs said. “In 2016, in the era of homeland security, police have become more militarized and have moved away from community relations.

“Police must become more socially close to the public. This can be as simple as a handshake and giving a business card. When police are out meeting people where they live, everyone is more trusting.”

The researchers suggest that similar federal, state and local programs, such as Teen and Police Service Academy and Citizens' Police Academy, are concrete ways to apply the principles of community policing while promoting closeness. They also suggest additional training on procedural justice, ensuring fair process to all citizens who interact with police.

“When citizens think they are being treated fairly and are receiving respect from police, they may believe, by extension, they are of a similar social status as police to deserve such treatment, thereby increasing closeness between the public and the police,” said Gibbs and Lee.

Actions as simple as changing the long, varying work schedules for police may allow them to develop social relationships with citizens outside of work, thus decreasing social distance between the police and the public, the researchers said.

The researchers added that there are some limitations to the study, including the sample of students was drawn from students at one university and that these results may or may not reflect the views of other college-age students or the U.S. population as a whole.

“Ideally, this type of study was supposed to be implemented in a public setting, not a college setting,” Lee said. “We are using this study as a pilot and moving it to the public for a more accurate look at attitudes toward police.”

The researchers are currently conducting the survey in Swatara Township, Pennsylvania, sponsored by the School of Public Affairs. Lee, is also conducting a survey in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as a part of a federally funded pilot program with Harrisburg police and Tri-County Community Action.

http://news.psu.edu/story/427056/2016/09/21/research/harrisburg-researchers-suggest-community-policing-build-trust

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Maryland

No Boundaries Coalition seeks Baltimore police reform

Group releases People's Decree of Central West Baltimore outlining changes sought

by Lisa Robinson

BALTIMORE —A Baltimore grassroots legal support group said a consent decree between Baltimore City police and the Department of Justice should include an end to stop-and-frisk practices in addition to changes to the department's use-of-force policies.

The Baltimore Action Legal Team released a list of recommendations this week.

The No Boundaries Coalition has been working to bring reform since the unrest in 2015, and it's calling on all citizens to take part.

"Dale Graham was a law student. He was shot by a Baltimore city police officer Oct. 28, 2008," said Darlene Cain, with the No Boundaries Coalition.

Cain said her son was also the father of two. She and other members of the No Boundaries Coalition on Thursday released the People's Decree of Central West Baltimore.

"It's not fair that we can accept the police killing and taking the lives of our children. Not just in Baltimore City, the state of Maryland, but all across the country. It is still happening every day before our eyes and nothing is being done about it. I stand here today to tell you I am going to do something about it," Cain said.

The decree written by No Boundaries is calling for the following reforms from the Baltimore City Police Department: civilian oversight, training, community policing, transparency, a community-driven process and an office of accountability.

"We are calling on our elected officials to commit to immediate and substantive change. We have to continue our push policy for policing change that allows for citizen inclusion and oversight of our police department," said Ray Kelly, with the No Boundaries Coalition.

Cain said she is counting on people to do more than talk and react when it comes to excessive force by police.

"We need everyone today that's looking at us on TV, the community and all over to be with us when we come to Annapolis, to fight with us when we are out there fighting for change," Cain said.

The consent decree has been sent to the DOJ. READ and sign it here.

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/no-boundaries-coalition-seeks-baltimore-police-reform/41784014

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California

Calif. to track all police use of force

All 800 police departments in California must begin using a new online tool launched Thursday

by Amanda Lee Myers

LOS ANGELES — From a broken bone to a fatal shooting, all 800 police departments in California must begin using a new online tool launched Thursday to report and help track every time officers use force that causes serious injuries.

The tool's developers hail it as the first statewide dataset of its kind in the country and a model for other states. Those more critical of law enforcement call it a big step toward better police accountability.

The tool, named URSUS for the bear on California's flag, includes fields for the race of those injured and the officers involved, how their interaction began and why force was deemed necessary.

"It's sort of like TurboTax for use-of-force incidents," said Justin Erlich, a special assistant attorney general overseeing the data collection and analysis.

Departments must report the data under a new state law passed last November. Though some departments already tracked such data on their own, many did not.

Working with the California Department of Justice, a technology nonprofit called Bayes Impact developed the tool in hopes of making the data easy for departments to report and easy for the state to analyze.

The tool was built as an open-source project, and California will share the software code with interested law enforcement agencies across the U.S.

Only three other states — Texas, Colorado and Connecticut — now require departments to track similar use-of-force data but their systems aren't digital, and in Colorado's case, only capture shootings, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"As a country, we must engage in an honest, transparent, and data-driven conversation about police use of force," California Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a news release.

The goal is to capture all incidents that cause serious injuries but not minor ones, like bruises.

"How do we get enough information where we can really focus on how to improve or inform policy? How do we make sure it's not too big?" Erlich said. "Capturing stubbed toes muddies the data but not capturing broken bones would be a huge miss."

California's efforts come as the FBI has made such data collection a priority in the wake of a number of officer-involved deaths of unarmed black people across the country.

Last year, the FBI announced it would begin collecting all use-of-force data and make it public, though departments don't have to participate.

FBI Director James Comey has expressed frustration over the absence of nationwide use-of-force data and said its collection will "dispel misperceptions, foster accountability and promote transparency."

California's police departments will report their use-of-force data to the state once a year beginning in January. It will be made public as early as the spring.

Until now, California only tracked deaths in custody, not non-lethal uses of force. And it did so using paper forms.

"This is hugely important," said Peter Bibring, director of police practices at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. "We're not taking use of force seriously until we're tracking information about every use-of-force incident."

Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, said she thinks the new data will show a pattern of abuse across the state. But actually collecting that data is positive, she said.

"We live in a culture that perpetuates racism and we need to be able to verify that racism through data," she said. "For the people who continue to deny racial disparities exist in this country, this data will allow us to have those living room and dinner conversations and share facts."

Many in law enforcement think the data will show just how rare force incidents are, said Louis Dekmar, vice president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and chief of the LaGrange Police Department in Georgia.

But the data also will help pinpoint excessive force and help departments make key changes, he added.

"I see it as something long overdue," Dekmar said. "When we screw up we should own up to it and do something to fix it."

ICE arrests 36 fugitives across US during Operation Safe Nation and Operation No Safe Haven III

WASHINGTON – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 36 fugitives during concurrent nationwide operations this week – Operation Safe Nation and Operation No Safe Haven III. Of those arrested, 17 were sought because they may pose a threat to public safety or national security, including individuals suspected of providing material support to a terrorist organization and 19 were sought for their known or suspected roles in human rights violations overseas.

During the operations that concluded Wednesday, the ICE National Fugitive Operations Program arrested the fugitives in coordination with the ICE Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, the ICE Counterterrorism Section and ICE field offices in the following cities: Atlanta; Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco and St. Paul, Minnesota. This concurrent nationwide operation was the first of its kind. It focused on the apprehension of fugitives known or suspected to pose a danger to public safety or national security and those known or suspected of human rights violations.

“Through the vigorous use of our unique investigative authorities, ICE will continue to ensure that our great nation provides no safe haven for human rights violators and other national security threats,” said ICE Director Sarah R. Saldaña. “To those hiding in the shadows: we will find you, arrest you and bring you to justice.”

The foreign nationals arrested during these operations all have outstanding removal orders and are subject to repatriation to their countries of origin. Of the 36 individuals arrested, four are also criminal aliens, convicted in the U.S. for crimes such as drug trafficking, bribery, domestic violence and driving under the influence.

Those arrested during Operation Safe Nation included:

• An individual from East Africa previously under investigation for his suspected association with individuals of national security interest.  The individual has an extensive criminal history, including violent and drug trafficking offenses;
  
• Three individuals from South Asia who were known or suspected to have provided material support to a terrorist organization whose members have engaged in assassinations and used explosives and firearms to endanger people and destroy property;
  
• An individual from North Africa who was suspected of having ties to international terrorism and was convicted of a crime in connection with an attempt to import a controlled substance into the United States.

Those arrested during No Safe Haven III for known or suspected human rights violations included:

• Three individuals from China who assisted in forced sterilizations and forced abortions upon victim patients or incarcerated religious practitioners who were later persecuted;
  
• An individual from the Eastern Europe who admitted to participating in military attacks upon civilians in which victims were raped and murdered;
  
• A senior military officer from South America working in conjunction with the state's intelligence service unit implicated with a clandestine death squad.

ICE is committed to rooting out those who pose a threat to national security or public safety, including known or suspected human rights violators who seek a safe haven in the U.S. ICE investigates those who try to evade justice by seeking shelter in the U.S., including individuals suspected of providing material support to a terrorist organization, espionage, or export violations, and those who are known or suspected to have participated in persecution, war crimes, genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, and the use or recruitment of child soldiers.

ICE Fugitive Operations Teams conduct investigative enforcement activities every day to identify, locate and arrest those who are removable from the U.S. and present a heightened threat to public safety and national security.  The efforts of these teams result in hundreds of arrests per week, both from daily operational activities and organized operations such as the operations announced today.

The ICE National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center (NCATC) provided critical investigative support for this operation, including criminal and intelligence analysis from a variety of sources. The NCATC provides comprehensive analytical support to aid the at-large enforcement efforts of all ICE components.

ICE credits the success of this operation to the combined efforts of the U.S. National Central Bureau-Interpol Washington which provided critical support with deconfliction, foreign criminal history, and identity confirmation information.

“Interpol's investigative tools provide U.S. law enforcement with a suite of databases that provide real-time biometric, travel document, and criminal background information,” according to Interpol Washington Director Geoffrey S. Shank. “These operations exemplify what can be achieved when U.S. and international law enforcement agencies have immediate access to information.”

The FBI, ICE liaison to the National Joint Terrorism Task Force, U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Marshals Service, whose deputies and personnel provided significant investigative assistance in meeting these common public safety and national security goals with ICE, were also key to the success of these operations.

Members of the public who have information about those presenting a national security threat and/or suspected of engaging in human rights abuses are urged to contact ICE by calling the toll-free ICE tip line at 1-866-347-2423 or internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They can also complete ICE's online tip form.

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-arrests-36-fugitives-across-us-during-operation-safe-nation-and-operation-no-safe

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from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Seeking justice for victims around the world

ICE Initiative Targets Human Rights Violators Living Among Us

Among the ideals upon which the United States of America was founded, and has thrived for nearly 250 years, is the understanding that no individual is above the law and all are equally protected by those who have sworn an oath to uphold it.

This fundamental belief also holds accountable human rights violators who have committed crimes against humanity around the world and have attempted to evade justice in their own countries by living secret lives here in the United States.

As the federal law enforcement organization with the broadest international authorities, ICE established in 2008 a team responsible for leading the long and difficult investigations into human rights violators and other war criminals who enter the United States.

The Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC) began as a pilot project in April 2008. Underscoring a whole-of-government approach to bringing these criminals to justice, the Center co-locates a select group of special agents, attorneys, criminal research specialists and historians.  It also brings together resources and expertise from various DHS components and other departmental agencies, to include the FBI's International Human Rights Unit and the Department of State, to work collaboratively on human rights violators and war crimes investigations. With bona fide successes supporting this crucial concept, the Center was formally recognized as a permanent ICE entity in October 2009.

The HRVWCC uses a variety of sources and methods to identify human rights abusers living in the United States or attempting to enter the United States. The Center works with international and national tribunals, foreign law enforcement partners, and INTERPOL to develop lead information. Non-governmental organizations and academics play a critical role in assisting ICE in locating and supporting witnesses, and in contextualizing conflicts so that judges and juries can understand the role the alleged perpetrators played in human rights violations.

Recently, a former member of the Guatemalan army, whom witnesses say participated in the Dos Erres massacre which claimed more than 200 lives in December 1982, was returned to his country.  His case was the fourth investigation initiated by the HRVWCC involving participants in the Dos Erres massacre.

“We owe it to all victims of war crimes and human rights abuses around the world, and to their families, to use every resource at our disposal to ensure the U.S. is not a safe haven for those involved in such atrocities.”

A recently completed documentary film titled “Finding Oscar” highlights ICE's work investigating one of the human rights violators who participated in the Dos Erres massacre.

Cases like this are developed and investigated through ICE's No Safe Haven initiative. Many individuals fleeing wars, genocide, ethnic cleansing and various other forms of persecution see the United States as a safe place for themselves and their families. Upon entry, the vast majority of these people choose to remain here permanently and, ultimately, gain citizenship through the naturalization process.

Unfortunately, individuals who have perpetrated significant abuses against others in their home countries are also coming to America seeking to evade potential prosecution and punishment. These individuals frequently hide among those they once persecuted, falsely claiming to be victims of abuse. They may be former officials of regimes that are or were potentially hostile to our nation and its interests, making them not only human-rights violators, but also national security threats. ICE's No Safe Haven initiative targets these individuals.

For example, ICE's National Fugitive Operations Program recently completed its third coordinated, nationwide enforcement action targeting fugitives sought for their roles in known or suspected human rights violations. All those arrested during Operation No Safe Haven have outstanding removal orders and are subject to repatriation, including a citizen of West Africa implicated in human rights atrocities as a member of a revolutionary group that engaged in the murder of women and children and an individual from Asia who performed forced sterilizations upon several female victims. The results of this most recent enforcement action bring to 88 the number of suspected human rights violators and war criminals arrested through Operation No Safe Haven.

Efforts through the No Safe Haven initiative send a clear message to those accused of human rights violations that, regardless of the amount of time that has passed, or the distance they have traveled, they cannot escape justice by hiding in the United States. ICE is committed to keeping the nation safe by identifying, investigating, prosecuting and removing human rights abusers and war criminals who enter the United States.

Since fiscal year 2004, ICE has arrested more than 375 individuals for human rights-related violations of the law under various criminal and/or immigration statutes. During that same period, ICE obtained deportation orders for and physically removed more than 815 known or suspected human rights violators from the United States.

Currently, ICE has more than 140 active investigations into suspected human rights violators and is pursuing more than 1,700 leads and removal cases involving suspected human rights violators from 97 different countries. Over the last four years, the HRVWCC has issued more than 70,000 lookouts for individuals from more than 110 countries and stopped 194 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the United States.

The public is encouraged to call the ICE tip line at 866-DHS-2-ICE with any information regarding foreign nationals suspected of engaging in human rights abusers or war crimes.

https://www.ice.gov/features/no-safe-haven

North Carolina

OpEd: Charlotte Is Burning: Waking up From the American Dream… Finally?

by Heather Ann Thompson

Another black man was shot to death by a police officer — this time in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The officer said he had a gun. The family of Keith Lamont Scott said he had a book. And then the city exploded.

And when people erupt in Charlotte, North Carolina, it gives the nation real pause. Why? Because this isn't a decaying northern city like Baltimore, nor is it a rust-belt city like Chicago. When police shoot unarmed citizens in those places, not a few wonder if the ugliness that takes place there in fact says more about the intractable violence of inner cities than it does about police aggression or unequal justice under the law.

Charlotte isn't a crumbling urban ghetto. Charlotte is the place you move when you want sunshine, and shiny a new house in a sparkling new subdivision. Charlotte is a prosperous city where you not only can get a job in the bustling and very clean Uptown area, but that job affords you wonderful weekend getaways to a cozy cabin in the Appalachian mountains but an hour away, or to the sandy shores of the Atlantic, also an easy drive from the Queen City. Charlotte is a magnet for the young and old alike and it's growth is the envy of not a few urban mayors.

It matters that Charlotte has been celebrated by U.S. News and World Reports as one of the best places to live in the entire nation. It filled Charlotte's residents with pride when other media outlets heralded their city as one of the very best places to raise a family in the entire state of North Carolina. Charlotte epitomizes the best of America in the 21st century.

Or does it?

Not really.

Yes, Charlotte is a major and thriving metropolis of almost a million people. And, yes, the city has good jobs—72 percent of the city's residents have jobs and they own nice houses — houses with a median value of $170,000.

What is more, more than 80 percent of Charlotteans have graduated from high school and more than 40 percent have a college degree. These are impressive statistics for a city that is only 50 percent white in a nation where it's the whitest spaces that are the wealthiest and filled with the greatest opportunity.

But like in every major city in America, Charlotte is also segregated, poor, and being destroyed by a drug war. Too many of Charlotte's kids are hungry and too many Charlotte parents see more police in their communities than they do job recruiters and grocery stores.

In short, Charlotte is one of the wealthiest cities in the country, but this prosperity hasn't touched overwhelmingly black West and Northeast Charlotte and it is one of the most heavily policed. And the police don't spend much energy policing — throwing people up against cars on a regular basis to search them for drugs — in overwhelmingly white South Charlotte.

And the excessive and aggressive policing of only Charlotte's poorest and blackest neighborhoods leads there, as it does in every other city in the country, to the killing of citizens by the police. It has led there, as it has elsewhere to outrage.

And, thus, when Charlotte erupts, we need to pay particularly close attention.

Some still think that this nation is doing just fine except for those ugly pockets of poverty and segregation that routinely explode like Baltimore or Chicago. Others know better, but hope to move away from, and thus avoid addressing, the persistence of ugly racial injustice and the cries for help coming from black families.

Charlotte is their wake up call.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/oped-charlotte-burning-waking-american-dream-finally-n651926

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North Carolina

N.C. Gov. declares state of emergency following violent Charlotte protests

by Tonya Maxwell and Malanie Eversley

CHARLOTTE — One person was shot Wednesday night and four officers were injured as a second round of protests gripped this North Carolina city in the wake of a police-involved shooting of a black man.

The City of Charlotte initially tweeted the person had died, but later corrected that the person was on life support.

The Wednesday night shooting was "civilian on civilian" and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department did not fire the shot, the City of Charlotte said via Twitter.

Four officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the protests Wednesday night, police said on Twitter.

The latest violence prompted Gov. Pat McCrory to declare a state of emergency and begin the process toward deploying the National Guard and the state Highway Patrol to assist local police, the governor said via Twitter. The violence that erupted during the demonstrations would not be tolerated, McCrory said during a late Wednesday interview on CNN.

"I understand concerns and I understand frustration and anger but I will never respect violence," McCrory said. "Violence is unacceptable."

The demonstrations also prompted the mayor to issue a call for peace.

"We are urging people to stay home, to stay off the streets," Mayor Jennifer Roberts told CNN. "Violence is not the answer."

The state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People also condemned the violent protests.

"We support those who exercise the right to peacefully protest, and encourage the First Amendment right to call for redress of wrongs," the organization said in a statement. "We understand efforts that undermine the legitimate calls for justice with unjust, random or purposeless acts of violence."

Charlotte's bus and light rail services halted shortly after midnight, the Charlote Area Transit System said on Twitter.

The violence came one day after police shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott, 43, who police say was armed and ignored commands to drop his weapon. Scott's family says the father of seven had a book in his hand. Word of the death stirred up anger in Charlotte and across the country.

In regards to the Wednesday night shooting, police responded to a call at about 8:30 p.m. ET Wednesday night and discovered a person with an apparent gunshot wound, police spokeswoman Cindy Wallace said in an email. The person was transported to Carolinas Medical Center, Wallace said.

As these details emerged, police in riot gear crowded downtown Charlotte as protesters shouted "hands up, don't shoot," banged against a police van and broke a window of the City Smoke barbecue restaurant and bar. Police set off smoke bombs, which are sometimes used to disperse crowds.

Sixteen police officers were wounded in the violence that erupted Tuesday night in this North Carolina hub after word of the shooting spread across the country.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney, at a news conference Wednesday, rejected claims Scott was holding a book, not a gun, and said the gun had been recovered by detectives. No book was found, Putney said.

“It's time to change the narrative, because I can tell you from the facts that the story's a little bit different as to how it's been portrayed so far, especially through social media,” Putney added.

As the city tried to cope with the sudden outbreak of anger and violence, students gathered Wednesday afternoon on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte as part of a silent protest. The campus is about a 20-minute walk from Scott's home.

About 200 students gathered at the student union with an already planned administration meeting scheduled, said Justice White of the school's Black Student Union.

“We want to focus making others aware of police brutality,” she said. “This happened in our front yard and it's important that we fight these stereotypes. People think we don't care as students, that we are off in our own world, and black people are made out to be these thugs, which just isn't true.”

Student protester Katrina Williams is a young African-American woman and big sister to four boys 8-years-old and up.

“I fear from my brothers who are younger than me, and the things I've gone through, I don't want them to go through,” she said.

In addition to the Marshall Park gathering, special church services were also called at a half dozen places of worship.

The Charlotte Chamber of Commerce expressed its condolences to the Scott family, as well as to those injured in the protests, while calling on business owners to be prepared for any new violence. It said businesses should "keep everything as normal as possible," but also take care to remove or chain down all tables, chairs, signs or planters.

The shooting took place four days after a Tulsa police officer fatally shot an unarmed black man who was standing outside his vehicle. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch called for calm in both cities and across the nation. Lynch said the Justice Department opened a civil rights probe into the death of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa and was "assessing" Scott's death.

“These tragic incidents have once again left Americans with feelings of sorrow, anger and uncertainty,'' Lynch said. “They have once again highlighted – in the most vivid and painful terms – the real divisions that still persist in this nation between law enforcement and communities of color.''

Gov. Pat McCrory issued a statement pledging support for Putney and Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts in their efforts to "keep the community calm and to get this situation resolved."

In Charlotte, Putney said police dashcams recorded parts of the confrontation, and the videos were being reviewed. The African-American officer who shot Scott, identified as Brentley Vinson, was not wearing a body camera, Putney said.

The ACLU called on the police department to "promptly" release the videos "in the interest of transparency and accountability." The advocacy group also demanded an explanation for why Vinson was not wearing a body camera.

Putney said officers were searching for a suspect with an outstanding warrant Tuesday afternoon at The Village at College Downs when they observed a man — not the person they were looking for — inside a vehicle at the apartment complex.

Putney said the man, Scott, exited the vehicle with a gun as officers yelled at him to drop it. Scott ignored the command and was shot by a Vinson, a two-year veteran of the force, Putney said. Vinson was placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.

"It's a tragic event, and my heart goes out to the Scott family for their loss," Putney said.

Several residents at a condominium near the scene of the shooting said the neighborhood, which includes locals and University of North Carolina at Charlotte students, is quiet and safe.

Michelle Cooke, a resident, said she learned of the shooting when her 12-year-old daughter came home from school and asked about the police tape and helicopters.

“In this climate we're living in, the job of law enforcement is to protect lives as well as it is to protect themselves. Unnecessary shootings should not take place,” she said. “If he did not point a gun, there is no reason to shoot

him. This is why the issue of Black Lives Matter is important.”

“For non-marginalized groups, who have not faced oppression, it might be hard to understand why we protest and say that black lives do matter,” Cooke added.

Temako McCarthy, whose son LaReko Williams died in 2011 after he was tasered by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, arrived at the complex Wednesday afternoon to show solidarity with Scott's family.

“If an officer is scared behind the trigger of a gun, that's scarier than a person who is walking down the street,” McCarthy said. “They need to have an outside sector come in, instead of taking care of this internally.”

Steve Knight, a white pastor at Charlotte's Missiongathering Christian Church, told USA TODAY he arrived at the scene about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. He said he talked to members of Scott's family as well as neighbors. All said Scott routinely sat in his car reading, waiting for his son's school bus.

Knight, 41, said he questions Putney's version of events.

"I find it difficult to believe, the story that the police are telling," he said. "Until we see video from the scene, and we see a gun, I for one am personally not going to believe that story."

George Shears III, pastor at Greater Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Charlotte, said the demonstration started out peaceful but "began to boil over very quickly."

By 11 p.m., some protesters were throwing rocks and bottles at police, who remained stoic, Shears said. He said he left when police began firing tear gas.

"That enraged the crowd," Shears, 34, said. "I didn't see any police cars burning, anything like that. I didn't expect that from the city. But people are angry and hurt and sometimes you just gotta let it out."

In the hours that followed, Putney said demonstrators, joined by "agitators," damaged at least two police cars, set fire to a trailer, looted a Walmart store and shut down part of Interstate 85. One arrest was made, he said.

"People are watching how we respond, how we react," Putney said. "I'm optimistic we will have positive outcomes, but it's time for the voiceless majority to stand up and be heard."

Nation of Islam representative B.J. Murphy, speaking later Wednesday, said the people of Charlotte were demanding justice. He called on "all black people to keep your money in your pocket. Let everybody feel the pain economically of what we are feeling physically when you kill us."

The state NAACP chapter said in a statement officials plan to meet with family members and community leaders Thursday in Charlotte. The organization plans to hold a news conference at 1 p.m.

"Our objective is simple: to ensure justice-loving people act toward justice, with all evidence, and that we stand together and act from a place of power and love, rather than out of fear and anger," the chapter said in the statement.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/09/21/charlotte-police-man-killed-officers-holding-gun-not-book/90774106/

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Trump calls for national stop-and-frisk policy for cops — does it work?

by Tom Jackson

Presidential candidate Donald Trump said Wednesday that one way he'd fight crime would be to restore the police practice of “stop-and-frisk”: an officer sees someone he thinks might be about to commit a crime, so he stops them, questions them and pats them down for weapons or contraband. This practice was implemented in New York City and elsewhere in the 1990s, and in New York it was discarded after a judge ruled that it unconstitutionally targeted minorities and Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014 ordered it stopped.

There are two things we know about “stop-and-frisk” in 2016: Crime experts completely disagree on whether it has an impact on crime, and it is disproportionately used in minority communities almost everywhere it's used. And when communities feel targeted by police, their trust in police declines, tensions rise and relationships between citizens and officers deteriorate.

Here's what Trump said in a taped town hall session on Fox, in response to a question about reducing violence in the black community: “One of the things I would do is I would do stop-and-frisk. I think you have to. We did it in New York, it worked incredibly well and you have to be proactive and, you know, you really help people sort of change their mind automatically…In New York City it was so incredible, the way it worked.”

Now it should be noted that presidents do not dictate policy to local police departments, and getting them to return to a practice they are largely discarding would seem unlikely. It also should be noted that statistics in New York showed about 90 percent of those stopped hadn't done anything wrong, so that that arresting the few meant annoying the many, often repeatedly.

Criminologists differ on whether “stop-question-and-frisk” (as it's formally known) worked, even after New York police stopped doing it, and the number of stops began to plummet in 2012. The Brennan Center at New York University published a study in April which showed that homicides continued to decline sharply in New York even after 2012, from almost 600 in 2006 to 350 in 2015, and that total crime in New York also fell even after stop-and-frisk was reduced drastically.

But others say the practice worked. Criminal justice author Heather Mac Donald pointed out that New York's crime rate per capita was significantly lower than many cities where stop-and-frisk wasn't used. “New York's most vulnerable residents enjoy a freedom from assault unknown in any other big city,” Mac Donald wrote in 2013, “thanks to the N.Y.P.D.'s assertive style of policing.”

An extensive study by George Mason University criminology professor David Weisburd last year declared, “it is time for scholars to recognize that [stop-and-frisks] focused on microgeographic hot spots are likely to reduce crime.” But Weisburd added, “The question is whether this approach is the best one for crime prevention at [larger] hot spots and whether its benefits are greater than its potential negative impacts on citizen evaluations of police legitimacy.”

And that's where stop-and-frisk ran into a problem. Statistics showed that it was disproportionately deployed against black citizens. In New York, statistics showed that police stopped black citizens 52 percent of the time Hispanics 31 percent and whites 10 percent, though blacks make up only 23 percent of the city population, Hispanics 29 percent and whites 33 percent. The policy became a central issue in the 2013 mayoral election, and after a federal judge ruled the practice unconstitutional, new Mayor DeBlasio ordered it stopped.

A similar practice was detected in Chicago, where black residents were stopped 72 percent of the time though they made up only 32 percent of the population. In 2015, the Illinois legislature passed, and the governor signed, “The Police and Community Relations Act,” requiring police to collect data on stops that resulted in a frisk or arrest and that officers issue a receipt to people whom they frisk. In August 2015, Chicago police reached a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union to reform their stop-and-frisk practices, hire an independent evaluator and improve training.

But violence in Chicago in 2016 has erupted, with more homicides through Labor Day this year than all of last year.

Stop-and-frisk tactics were also recently criticized in Baltimore, where a Justice Department report in August said it was used both disproportionately and often with heavy-handed tactics. And similar allegations were made in Newark, where the city in March agreed to sweeping reforms under the supervision of a federal monitor.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/09/21/trump-calls-for-national-stop-and-frisk-policy-for-cops-does-it-work/

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New York

FBI seeks 2 potential bombing witnesses seen with suitcase

Investigators are looking for the two men, who they stressed were being sought as potential witnesses in the case, not as suspects

by Jake Pearson and Megan Trimble

NEW YORK — Investigators of last weekend's bombings have released an image of two men who took a suitcase they found on a city street, possibly without realizing a wired pressure cooker they removed from it and left behind could have blown them to bits.

Police investigating the bombings in New York and New Jersey have been saying for several days they were looking for the men, who they stressed were being sought as potential witnesses in the case, not as suspects.

"They're not in any jeopardy of being arrested," Jim Watters, chief of the New York Police Department's counterterrorism unit, said on Wednesday. "We have no reason to believe they're connected."

Federal prosecutors have charged Ahmad Khan Rahami with detonating a pipe bomb in a New Jersey shore town on Saturday morning and a pressure cooker bomb in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood later that night. Thirty-one people were injured in the New York blast. A second pressure cooker bomb left in Manhattan didn't explode and is the subject of the latest public plea.

Prosecutors said surveillance video shows Rahami rolling a suitcase down the street, then abandoning it on the sidewalk where that second device was found.

A few minutes later, two men pass by the luggage and appear to admire it, police said. They then remove a pressure cooker from the luggage, leave the pressure cooker on the sidewalk and walk away with the luggage.

"I think they were more interested in the bag, not what they were taking out," Watters said, adding that they were "very, very lucky" the bomb didn't explode.

In court papers, a public defender sought a court appearance for Rahami, an Afghan-born U.S. citizen, so he can hear the federal terrorism charges against him.

Rahami, 28, was arrested on Monday following a shootout with police in Linden, New Jersey. He is being held on $5.2 million bail, and he faces state charges of attempted murder of police officers.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Rahami will be moved to New York to face federal charges in the "near future."

In a bloodied journal recovered by investigators, Rahami made references to Osama bin Laden, American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and former Army officer Nidal Hasan, who went on a shooting rampage in Ford Hood, Texas, according to a federal complaint.

In one section, the complaint says, Rahami wrote: "Death to your oppression."

Two federal law enforcement officials said Rahami's wife, thought to be a Pakistani national, will return soon to the United States. One of the officials said the wife made a statement to authorities after walking into the U.S. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates. The other official said investigators believe she left the U.S. for Pakistan in June. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the ongoing case.

Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, touring the site of the Manhattan blast on Wednesday, said he believes insurance companies will cover most of the losses incurred by those whose businesses and homes were damaged. But he said if there are gaps in coverage, the state would pay for anything left outstanding from its emergency funds.

Also Wednesday, a homeless man who took a backpack from a garbage can near a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on Sunday night, not knowing it contained pipe bombs prosecutors say were made by Rahami, said he's grateful he didn't prompt an explosion.

"I don't like to think about what could have happened, but I'm just so blessed and glad it didn't," Lee Parker said. "I still have my nine lives, I guess, and I'm going to keep trying to live them well."

http://www.policeone.com/explosives-eod/articles/223269006-FBI-seeks-2-potential-bombing-witnesses-seen-with-suitcase/

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Oklahoma

Tulsa police: PCP found at scene of fatal OIS

Investigators recovered one vial of PCP in Terence Crutcher's SUV, but declined to say where in the vehicle it was found or whether Crutcher used it before he was shot

by Justin Juozapavicius and Sean Murphy

TULSA, Okla. — An unarmed black man shot dead in the middle of a Tulsa street last week by a white police officer had run-ins with the law dating back to his teenage years and recently served a four-year stint in prison.

But those closest to Terence Crutcher described him as a church-going father who was beginning to turn his life around. After marking his 40th birthday with his twin sister last month, Crutcher sent her a text that read, "I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna make you all proud."

Crutcher was due to start a music appreciation class at a local community college on Friday, the day he was fatally shot by Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby after she responded to a report of a stalled vehicle.

The shooting was captured in graphic detail by a police helicopter and a cruiser dashcam, though it's not clear from that footage what led Shelby to draw her gun or what orders officers gave Crutcher. An attorney for Crutcher's family said Crutcher committed no crime and gave officers no reason to shoot.

Shelby was put on paid administrative leave while local and federal officials investigate the shooting.

Crutcher's criminal history includes a 1995 arrest in nearby Osage County in which officers reported that they saw him fire his weapon out a vehicle window. Records obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday show that when Crutcher was ordered to exit the vehicle for a pat-down search, he began making a movement to his right ankle before an officer managed to get control of Crutcher. A .25-caliber pistol was found in his right sock, the arresting officer wrote in an affidavit.

Crutcher eventually entered a no-contest plea to charges of carrying a weapon and resisting an officer, and he received suspended sentences, court records show.

Oklahoma prison officials confirmed Tuesday that Crutcher also served four years in prison from 2007 to 2011 on a Tulsa County drug trafficking conviction.

The Tulsa World reported that officers used force against Crutcher at least four times, including a 2012 arrest on public intoxication and obstruction complaints. According to a probable cause affidavit in that case, an officer used a stun gun on Crutcher twice while he was face down on the ground because the officer said Crutcher didn't comply with at least three orders to show his hands. Crutcher's father showed up while he was being arrested and told the officers that his son had "an ongoing problem" with PCP, the affidavit states.

Crutcher's family could not be reached for comment on his criminal record. But an attorney for his family, Melvin Hall, said those details weren't known by police at the scene.

"Nobody claimed that he was a perfect individual. Who is perfect? But that night he was not a criminal," Hall said. "He did not have any warrants. He had not done anything wrong. He had a malfunctioning vehicle, and he should have been treated accordingly."

On Friday, two 911 calls describing an SUV that had been abandoned in the middle of the road preceded the fatal encounter between Crutcher and the police. One unidentified caller said the driver of the stalled vehicle was acting strangely, adding, "I think he's smoking something."

Tulsa Police Sgt. Dave Walker told the Tulsa World that investigators found a vial of PCP in Crutcher's SUV, but he declined to say where in the vehicle they found it or whether they had determined if Crutcher had used it Friday evening. Police said a toxicology report could take several weeks.

Attorneys for Crutcher's family said the family didn't know whether drugs were found in the SUV, but that even if they were, it wouldn't justify police shooting him.

PCP or phencyclidine, also called angel dust, can cause slurred speech, loss of coordination and a sense of strength or invulnerability, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. At high doses, it can cause hallucinations and paranoia.

Police video shows Crutcher walking toward his SUV, which is stopped in the middle of the road. His hands are up and a female officer is following him. As Crutcher approaches the driver's side, more officers arrive and Crutcher appears to lower his hands and place them on the vehicle before the officers surround him.

Crutcher can be seen dropping to the ground. Someone on the police radio says, "I think he may have just been tasered." Then almost immediately, someone can be heard yelling, "Shots fired!" and Crutcher is left lying in the street.

Police Chief Chuck Jordan said Monday that Crutcher had no weapon on him or in his SUV.

Shelby's attorney, Scott Wood, said Crutcher wasn't following the officers' commands and that Shelby was concerned because he kept reaching for his pocket as if he had a weapon.

"He has his hands up and is facing the car and looks at Shelby, and his left hand goes through the car window, and that's when she fired her shot," Wood told the Tulsa World.

But attorneys for Crutcher's family challenged that claim Tuesday, presenting an enlarged photo from the police footage that appeared to show that Crutcher's window was rolled up.

Local and federal investigations are underway to determine whether Crutcher's civil rights were violated and whether Shelby should face charges. Hundreds of protesters rallied Tuesday night outside police headquarters in downtown Tulsa calling for her firing.

The shooting comes four months after ex-Tulsa County volunteer was sentenced to four years in prison for killing an unarmed black suspect last year. The deputy said meant to use his stun gun on the suspect, but mistakenly shot him with his firearm.

http://www.policeone.com/officer-shootings/articles/223077006-Tulsa-police-PCP-found-at-scene-of-fatal-OIS/

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California

Police Commission faults LAPD officers in two deadly shootings

The decision came as the LAPD tries to reduce the number of police shootings and try to resolve tense encounters without using their guns

by Kate Mather

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Commission concluded Tuesday that LAPD officers violated deadly-force rules in two controversial shootings last year, breaking ranks with Police Chief Charlie Beck.

The decisions come as commissioners are pushing the LAPD to reduce the number of shootings by officers, prompting department brass to revamp policies and training to emphasize that officers try whenever possible to resolve tense encounters without using their guns.

Both of the cases in the commission's Tuesday rulings raised questions about whether the officers could have avoided using deadly force. In one case, a woman armed with a knife was fatally shot by officers. In another, police killed a man who had thrown a beer bottle at their patrol vehicle.

The commission, a civilian panel that oversees the LAPD, announced that it had faulted both officers who fatally shot James Joseph Byrd in October after a bottle shattered the back window of their police cruiser in Van Nuys. The officers told investigators they believed they had come under fire.

In the shooting of Norma Guzman nearly a week earlier, the commission found fault with the tactics and use of deadly force by one of the two officers who shot her as she was walking along a street near downtown while carrying an 8-inch knife.

Beck had concluded that both officers who shot Guzman followed the department's policy for using deadly force, according to a written report he sent to the board. The chief also said he believed the initial rounds fired by the officers who shot Byrd fell within policy, but faulted the officers for firing an additional 11 rounds.

The review of the shootings coincides with an ongoing national debate over the use of deadly force by officers. Criticism has largely focused on police shootings of African Americans, but the discussion has swelled to include broader calls for law enforcement reform.

Byrd, a 45-year-old white man, had a history of schizophrenia, according to his autopsy report. Guzman, a 37-year-old Latina, suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness, attorneys for her family said.

Commissioner Steve Soboroff split with his colleagues and found that both officers who shot Guzman were justified in doing so. Soboroff also voted alone in finding that one of the officers who shot Byrd didn't violate the LAPD's deadly force rules, though he agreed the other did.

"It was very, very hard to make that determination -- for all of them," he said. "There's possibility for reasonable people to disagree."

It is now up to Beck to determine what, if any, punishment to hand down to the officers.

Guzman's family, along with local activists, have called for criminal charges against the officers who shot her, questioning why they didn't use less-lethal devices, such as Tasers, before firing their guns.

"There was no reason to shoot Norma, period," said Arnoldo Casillas, an attorney representing Guzman's mother.

Attorneys representing Guzman's family previously released video of the shooting, captured by a nearby security camera. The officers were also wearing body cameras, but videos from those cameras have not been made public.

Officers confronted Guzman on Sept. 27, 2015, after someone reported a woman armed with a knife outside a barber shop on South San Pedro Street, according to Beck's report to the commission. After spotting Guzman, the officers got out of their police SUV and drew their guns, standing behind another car parked on the street.

Guzman walked closer, the blade in her hand.

One officer yelled at Guzman to drop the knife -- video from his body camera indicated he shouted the command six times, according to Beck's report. When she was about four feet from one of the officers, both fired their guns.

Guzman yelled "Shoot me!" just before the gunfire, according to the body-camera recording cited in the report.

The time-stamped security video, which has no sound, shows the shooting happened about 10 seconds after the first officer exited the SUV.

"I was afraid that she was going to stab me or cut me with the knife or my partner," one of the officers told investigators, according to Beck's report. "I had no choice."

Beck concluded that it was reasonable for the officers to believe Guzman presented an "imminent threat" of death or serious injury and thus they were justified in firing their guns. A written summary of the rationale behind the commission's decision had not been made public as of Tuesday night.

One of the officers was criticized for not carrying a Taser, despite orders handed down by department brass just days earlier requiring every officer in the field to carry one.

The names of the officers were redacted from Beck's report and it was unclear which officer was faulted. The LAPD has previously identified the officers who shot Guzman as Samuel Briggs and Antonio McNeely.

Jamie McBride, a director for the union that represents rank-and-file officers, criticized the commission's decision, saying the two officers had acted appropriately to protect themselves and others from Guzman. McBride accused commissioners of sending officers a message: "You can save your life or you can save your job, but you can't do both."

"I would have shot that suspect 10 feet away and would have had no issue," he said. "I would have gone to bed with no issues at all."

Police fatally shot Byrd less than a week later.

Two officers were stopped at a red light in Van Nuys when the back window of their patrol car shattered. Fearing they were under fire, they jumped out of the cruiser and shot at a nearby man, Byrd, who they believed was responsible.

One officer told investigators he thought Byrd had a gun in his hand. The other said he saw Byrd holding a "black object."

Police didn't find a gun or a black object. Instead, they determined Byrd had thrown a 40-ounce beer bottle.

Beck and the commissioners were critical of the number of rounds -- 18 in all -- fired by the officers, which peppered nearby buildings. During the later bursts of gunfire, Beck concluded, it was not reasonable for the officers to believe that Byrd still presented an imminent threat.

Byrd was shot six times, according to his autopsy, twice in the back.

The LAPD previously identified the officers who shot Byrd as Zackary Goldstein and Andrew Hacoupian. The officers' names were also redacted from the report released Tuesday.

The Oct. 3 shooting came during heightened tension within the LAPD after a video had circulated on social media showing what police feared was a threat against officers: a person filming an LAPD patrol car, then flashing the camera down to show a revolver. After the shooting, attorney Gary Fullerton said the officers told investigators they thought they were being ambushed because of the video.

The LAPD later determined that the video wasn't a threat against officers but a promotional clip filmed by an early 1990s rap group trying to make a comeback.

On Tuesday, Fullerton said he believed the officers were unfairly judged despite the "totality of the circumstances" -- the video, hearing what they believed was gunfire and then seeing something in Byrd's hand.

"They believed they were being attacked," Fullerton said. "It turned out they were wrong, and that's a tragedy... I don't think the officers deserved to be punished for making a reasonable decision based on the facts that they knew."

Guzman and Byrd were among the 36 people shot by on-duty LAPD officers last year. Twenty-one of them were killed.

This year, on-duty LAPD officers have shot 17 people, according to a Times analysis. Fourteen of those people died.

http://www.policeone.com/officer-misconduct-internal-affairs/articles/223311006-Police-Commission-faults-LAPD-officers-in-two-deadly-shootings/

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Illinois

Chicago to boost police force by 500 officers, promote hundreds

Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to hire 500 additional police officers, promote hundreds of cops to sergeant and detective, and spend more on programs that help at-risk youth

by Bill Ruthhart and Hal Dardick

CHICAGO — Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to hire 500 additional police officers, promote hundreds of cops to sergeant and detective, and spend more on programs that help youth growing up in some of Chicago's most violent neighborhoods, according to several sources familiar with the proposal.

Details of the mayor's blueprint began to emerge Tuesday night in advance of Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson's expected announcement Wednesday of the hiring portion of the plan.

For more than two weeks, one of the questions about Emanuel's policing push has been whether he will hire to keep up with officer retirements and departures or increase the size of the force. Sources said the 500 officers would be above the level of attrition.

On top of the hires, Johnson is expected to announce an effort to beef up the number of sergeants and detectives in the department by promoting officers from within, sources said. The goal, they said, then would be to replace those promoted officers with new hires.

Emanuel's overall plan also would include more money for recruiting and training new officers, a source with knowledge of the plan said. And when Emanuel gives what he's called a "major address" on policing Thursday evening, he is expected to include more money for community efforts aimed at creating more mentorship and education opportunities for disadvantaged youth, a source said.

For Emanuel, the move marks a change in course in how he's managed the policing of Chicago.

Emanuel has insisted for years that the current number of officers has been enough to fight crime in the city, and the mayor instead has relied on upward of $100 million a year in overtime to provide enough officers in the city's most crime-ridden neighborhoods during the typically more violent summer months.

The mayor's police hiring comes as Chicago has endured a major uptick in shootings and slayings.

More than 3,000 people already have been shot in the city this year, a number that already has surpassed the 2,980 people shot last year.

Similarly, Chicago topped 500 homicides early this month after tallying 481 in all of 2015, according to Tribune data.

While it was unclear Tuesday night exactly how much Emanuel's policing plan would cost or how he would pay for it, it's unlikely the full bill would come due in the first year or two. That's because CPD already is struggling to bring in enough new officers through the academy to keep up with attrition.

Earlier this month, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the department is about 468 cops short of full staffing — which is 12,600 sworn officers. Guglielmi said an additional 100 officers recently graduated from the academy and an average of 200 to 300 officers retire each year.

The cost of a new police officer is $138,000 in the first year, which includes salary, supervision and other benefits, city budget spokeswoman Molly Poppe said. After five years on the force, the cost of that officer rises to $180,000.

Given those numbers, hiring 500 additional officers would cost $69 million for their first year of employment and rise to $90 million by the fifth year. Promoting officers to higher posts also would cost more, as would hiring their replacements and providing additional money for the police academy and training.

Asked about possible funding sources for more officers, Poppe reiterated that Emanuel has said the 2017 city budget would not include any property, sales or gas taxes to pay for officers. That, however, does not rule out other possible taxes and fee increases.

Emanuel first raised the prospect of hiring more officers on Sept. 2, though he has remained vague on the details and whether the number of hired officers would exceed retirements and attrition.

The mayor recently said he has been meeting for weeks with Johnson about hiring officers. But each time he addressed the issue, Emanuel also was quick to seize on the need for stronger gun laws and more investment in struggling neighborhoods as other keys to addressing the city's surging crime.

"It's a complex problem with multidimensional facets to it," Emanuel said this month when noting he'd unveil a policing plan. "It's not just about more police, but it will include that. But it's also about more resources for our children, more resources for our neighborhoods and stiffer laws that reflect the values of our city."

Emanuel's decision to hire more officers also came after some members of the City Council's Black Caucus discussed adding funding for more cops.

"Specifically the number I'm throwing out is about 500," Ald. Howard Brookins, 21st, said nearly three weeks ago. "And would there be a stomach to raise taxes to do that."

After a gut check, Emanuel appears to have found one.

http://www.policeone.com/police-jobs-and-careers/articles/223314006-Chicago-to-boost-police-force-by-500-officers-promote-hundreds/

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How to talk to your children about violence

by Mary Bowerman

Whether it's a mass shooting or protests over police brutality, violence is never far from the conversation in the United States.

For parents of children in middle school and high school, there is no checklist of how to explain violent acts, even if parents wish there were.

Here are a few tips on talking to children about violence:

Tailor your conversation to what your kids know:

Parents should ask kids what they've heard in the news and tailor the conversation to what concerns the child may have, says psychotherapist Robi Ludwig.

Ludwig notes that many times kids may have already heard about violent incidents on social media or the Internet.

“It's good if parents can describe violence from a psychological reality,” she said. “The truth is human beings can be volatile, and that is part of human nature, but the goal of living in a civilized society is we don't act on our primal impulses.”

Frame the conversation in a way that the child can learn how they control their actions.

How should parents act?

While parents may become emotional or feel the need to rant about the violence they see in the news, it's important to refrain from losing control in front of children, Jennifer Freed, author of the Become Your Best Self workbook series and Lessons From Stanley the Cat, said in a USA TODAY column.

“We must not become irate in front of our children,” Freed said. “While it might feel good momentarily to rant, incendiary vitriol contributes to the problem, whipping up stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Cortisol, in excess, can increase anxiety. Simmering and stewing in an “us vs. them” rage is not only exhausting for the people around us, it also damages our own well-being and doesn't do a thing to solve the problems we're so angry about.”

Parents should aim to “guide their attention toward things that can create calm.”

On police violence:

Linda McGhee, a Bethesda-based clinical psychologist, told WUSA-TV parents have to talk about police brutality with their kids because they hear and see it on the news and social media sites.

"This is a tricky topic," McGhee told WUSA-TV. "The large majority of police officers are law-abiding and good and helpful to the citizenry, including black youth. But then you also have a small minority who abuse those privileges and the authority that they have. So you want to phrase your conversation with the child in that way.”

There is not cookie cutter conversation about police violence and protests, Ludwig said.

“My conversation with my teenage son who is white, is a different conversation than a mother would have with a child who is black, especially if the child is a black male,” she said. “That's just a reality.”

North Carolina

12 officers injured, fires set, as protests break out in Charlotte after police fatally shoot man

by Derek Hawkins

Police in Charlotte, N.C., shot and killed a black man they said was armed outside an apartment complex on Tuesday, setting off violent protests that continued late into the night and left two dozen people injured. The officer involved was also black, police told The Washington Post.

A large crowd of demonstrators gathered near the scene of the shooting Tuesday evening to protest the killing of Keith Lamont Scott, who was fatally shot by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officer earlier in the day. The demonstrations began peacefully, with some people chanting “black lives matter” and “hands up, don't shoot.” News reports and posts on social media later showed police in riot gear firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the demonstrators and some people smashing out the windows of police cars.

Early Wednesday morning, protesters shut down traffic on Interstate-85. Some protesters opened up the backs of tractor trailers, took out boxes and set them on fire in the middle of the highway, WSOC-TV reported. The station spoke to one truck driver who said people stole cargo from her trailer. Police reportedly used flash grenades to break up the crowd and had cleared the highway by early morning.

A few dozen other people broke down the doors of a nearby Walmart, then disbursed when police arrived, according to WSOC.

Police said 12 officers were injured during the demonstrations, one of them hit in the face with a rock. At least 11 people were taken from the demonstrations and treated for non-life threatening injuries, hospital officials told WSOC.

Officers were looking for a suspect with an outstanding warrant at a complex near the University of North Carolina on Tuesday afternoon, when they found Scott, 43, sitting a vehicle in the parking lot, police said in a statement. Scott, who was not the suspect they were seeking, got out of the car holding a “firearm,” then got back in the car, according to police.

As officers approached, Scott again emerged from the car with the firearm and “posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject,” police said.

Medics took Scott to the Carolinas Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Detectives said they recovered a firearm Scott was holding during the shooting and were interviewing witnesses Tuesday night. Police declined to comment on the make and model of the firearm.

A woman saying she was Scott's daughter said her father was unarmed and reading a book in his car when police shot and killed him. In a widely-circulated Facebook Live video, she said Scott was parked and waiting for a school bus to drop off his son when police arrived. Officers Tasered him, then shot him four times, she said. She added that Scott was disabled.

“My daddy didn't do nothing. They just pulled up undercover,” she said in the video.

A police spokeswoman declined to comment on the video.

Police identified the officer who shot Scott as Officer Brentley Vinson, who has worked for Charlotte-Mecklenburg police since July 2014. He has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation, which is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings.

Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts said on Twitter that the city will conduct a “full investigation” into the shooting.

Scott is one of at least 702 people who have been fatally shot by police so far this year, 163 of them black men, according to a Washington Post database tracking fatal officer-involved shootings.

Another recent high-profile police shooting in Charlotte occurred in September 2013, when Charlotte-Mecklenburg officers fatally shot Jonathan Ferrell after the black 24-year-old crashed his car in a residential neighborhood several miles from the complex where Scott was killed. Officer Randall Kerrick fired 12 rounds at Ferrell, who was unarmed, striking him 10 times. Police said Ferrell ignored officers' instructions. Kerrick was acquitted of voluntary manslaughter last year.

The shooting of Scott comes just a day after police in Tulsa released video of an officer shooting and killing an unarmed black man who had gotten out of a stalled SUV.

Terrence Crutcher, 40, was standing on the side of the road by the broken down vehicle on Friday evening when officers arrived and ordered him to show his hands. Police said they Tasered and shot Crutcher after he refused to obey officers' commands and reached into the driver's side window of the SUV. But video released Monday showed Crutcher walking with his hands in the air, and an attorney for the man's family said the vehicle's window was rolled up when an officer opened fire on him. Police said they found PCP in the vehicle but no weapon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/21/protests-break-out-in-charlotte-after-police-fatally-shoot-man-they-say-wielded-firearm/

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New York

Suspect wrote 'bombs will be heard in the streets,' authorities say

by Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz, Amanda Wills, Emanuella Grinberg and Holly Yan

The suspect in Saturday's bombings in New York and New Jersey declared that "the sounds of bombs will be heard in the streets" and praised "Brother Osama Bin Laden" in a journal found on him when he was arrested, authorities said.

Ahmad Rahami was charged Tuesday with four counts in federal court in connection with an explosion in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood and an unexploded pressure cooker found nearby.

A complaint filed in US District Court in Manhattan contains details from Rahami's handwritten journal, damaged from a shootout with police, and more evidence from the investigation.

The complaint charges Rahami with use of weapons of mass destruction, bombing a public place, destruction of property and use of a destructive device.

The charges are the latest news in a fast-moving investigation. The 28-year-old naturalized US citizen also faces charges in state court in New Jersey stemming from a shootout with police in Linden.

New details emerge

The complaint sheds new light on Rahami's alleged motives and means, and the time line of the incidents.

Two cell phones used in the bombs were shipped to the same Perth Amboy, New Jersey, store located about 500 meters from a residence listed on Rahami's 2012 passport application as home.

The "user address" for the phone attached to the unexploded pressure cooker bomb found in Chelsea belonged to Rahami's residence, the complaint alleges.

A social media account associated with the phone contained videos of violent extremist content.

From June 20 to August 10, registered eBay user "ahmad rahimi" purchased items associated with bomb making. They were shipped to a Perth Amboy, NJ, business where Rahami is believed to have worked until September 12.

The Chelsea explosion came from a "high explosive charge" placed inside a pressure cooker and left in a dumpster. The blast propelled the dumpster 100 feet and shattered windows 400 feet above the detonation. The bomb was packed with ball bearings and steel nuts, likely to increase the lethality of the device, that traveled as far as 650 feet from the site, the complaint alleges.

An unexploded pressure cooker was packed with similar components, including a cell phone that would act as a timer. Twelve fingerprints recovered from the the pressure cooker, duct tape, and triggering cell phone were matched to Rahami.

In addition to bin Laden, the journal contained references Anwar al-Awlaki and Fort Hood, Texas, mass shooter Nidal Hasan. There are mentions of pipe bombs, a pressure cooker bomb and a partial sentence, "in the streets they plan to run a mile."

It closes with "Inshallah," God willing, "the sounds of the bombs will be heard in the streets. Gun shots to your police. Death To Your OPPRESSION."

Why the FBI interviewed Rahami's father in 2014

Earlier Tuesday, Rahami's father told reporters that he called the FBI two years ago when his son was acting violently.

The FBI interviewed Rahami's father in 2014 after a violent domestic dispute. That interview stemmed from a tip alleging that Rahami's father was calling his son a terrorist, according to two US officials.

However, there are contradictory accounts of how Rahami came to the attention of law enforcement. His father told reporters that he contacted the FBI and expressed his concern after the dispute.

But when the FBI talked with the father, he recanted his claim that his son was a terrorist but did express concern that Ahmad was engaged in criminal or gang activity, a federal law enforcement source said.

Ultimately, federal investigators believed it was a domestic dispute, several federal officials told CNN. At the time of that interview, Rahami was in jail following a family dispute in which he stabbed one of his relatives.

The FBI never interviewed Ahmad Rahami, according to officials. He was never placed in an FBI database of potential terrorists, officials said.

His wife's whereabouts

While he was in Pakistan in 2011, Rahami married a Pakistani woman. That same year, he filed paperwork to bring her back to the US, and it was approved in 2012. However it's unclear if she came to the US at that time.

In 2014, Rahami contacted Congressman Albio Sires' office from Islamabad, saying he was concerned about his wife's passport and visa. It turned out her Pakistani passport had expired. Once it was renewed, she discovered she was pregnant. She was told she would need a visa for the baby as well. It is unclear what happened to the child.

However, Rahami's wife eventually made it to the US -- and she left before Saturday's attacks, according to a law enforcement official.

She is cooperating with investigators, according to the source. She has spoken with US officials in the UAE.

How he was found

Surveillance video from Saturday evening shows a man believed to be Rahami dragging what appeared to be a duffel bag with wheels near the site of the West 23rd Street explosion about 40 minutes before the blast.

About 10 minutes later, surveillance video showed the same man with the same duffel bag on West 27th Street, near the site of the second bomb.

Rahami was identified Sunday afternoon through a fingerprint. Evidence from the cell phone on the pressure cooker also led to Rahami's identification. Authorities revealed his identity on Monday morning.

He was captured four hours later in Linden, NJ, about 20 miles from New York City. Police found him after a bar owner spotted him sleeping in the doorway of his bar.

When officers responded, Rahami pulled out a handgun and opened fire, striking an officer in his protective vest over his chest. A foot chase ensued, during which Rahami shot at a police car, causing a bullet to graze another officer in the face.

The chase ended when Rahami was shot multiple times. He was taken to a hospital for surgery.

Rahami was charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose on Monday.

His bail has been set at $5.2 million.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/20/us/new-york-explosion-investigation/

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Pennsylvania

Community policing can build relationships that foster trust, panelists say

by Eric Wise

Police need to build strong relationships with the communities they serve in order to develop a mutual trust and understanding, panelists agreed during a Sept. 13 discussion at Penn State Harrisburg.

In Susquehanna Township, police responded to about 15,000 calls this year, said Robert Martin, the township's public safety director. When this number is multiplied by the police departments throughout the nation, police have millions of interactions with the public, and yet they are scrutinized based on only a few.

Many members of the public consume news and gain familiarity with the names of those killed by police in recent years, including Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray and Walter Scott, said Jennifer Gibbs of Penn State.

Moderator Shaun Gabbidon, distinguished professor or criminal justice at Penn State, said finding the exact number of police shootings per year has proven difficult. The FBI has placed the number at about 400 per year, while media investigations have shown 945 to 1,100 per year. Local police have not been given an effective way to report officer involved shootings to improve accountability for police nationwide.

These heavily publicized police shootings, especially when scrutinized by the media without an understanding of the entire incident and circumstances, fueled a misconception that “racial misconduct is the rule,” said Jason Umberger, police chief in Swatara Township. “It lit a fire, especially in minority communities,” he said.

“Violence and hateful rhetoric against police is at an all-time high,” he said.

Martin began his remarks by reminding the audience that law enforcement officers are killed in the line of duty often, about one every 61 hours.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reported 123 deaths in the line of duty during 2015, with 41 deaths from shootings. Comparing year-to-date law enforcement fatalities through Sept. 15 of both years, 83 officers died in 2016, two fewer than the same period in 2015. From 2015, the other top causes of officers' deaths include 34 killed in auto crashes, 22 from job-related illnesses and 10 struck by a vehicle. The same source reports that about 200 officers died in line of duty from 1967 to 1982, which was the worst period for police deaths except for the period of Prohibition.

Relationships key

Umberger and Martin agreed that building relationships and trust are key to maintaining a strong relationship with residents of the communities they serve.

“Most times we are called to have contact with people are unfortunate events,” Martin said. Instead, he wants officers “out of the car, interacting with the public in positive situations,” he said.

“One of the worst inventions and one of the best inventions is the climate controlled police car,” he said. This began when more people had moved to the suburbs from the cities. “Foot patrol was no longer conducive,” he said. However, using cars to cover a larger area meant that officers are “not on foot having personal contact.”

“The best policing takes place when the officer is out of the car, not in the car,” he said.

This emphasis on community policing got a boost in the 1990s, thanks to the support of President Bill Clinton, Martin said.

Umburger said community policing relies on using officers nondirected time for positive interactions. He said he's encouraged by initiatives his officers take, including stopping at schools and having lunch with students.

Swatara Townnship police spent about 82 percent of their shifts with directed time, which is the time they are responding to calls, Umburger said. In order to increase his officers available time for an ideal amount of community policing, they should raise that 18 percent in nondirected time to about 45 percent. However, based on Swatara Township Police's current call volume, they would need 20 new officers to make that happen.

An emphasis on making the best use of nondirected time for community policing is a topic Umberger said he uses in officer performance reviews to provide encouragement.

Research to back it up?

Jonathan Lee, a Penn State professor and consultant to local police departments, cited opinion polls, specific to Pennsylvania, that have shown that many people are generally supportive of the police, with more than 80 percent of respondents having confidence in the police. The support is particularly strong from white people, but is not universal, said Lee, who was a panelist.

“Black respondents have low confidence in the police,” Lee said.

Those who interacted with police, as a victim of crime or recipient of a traffic ticket, also show lower confidence than the study as a whole, Lee said.

Lee said a study of Penn State students also examined other variables that affect perceptions, including asking whether respondents knew an officer by his or her first name or if they feel comfortable speaking with them. When respondents had positive reactions — and a closer “social distance” — the difference in confidence level in the police was eliminated between black and white respondents. Lee said he hopes to expand the study to include Swatara Township and Harrisburg residents, and may eventually expand it to include all of Dauphin County.

Clues from history

In contrast, following the killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri, a national Gallup poll showed a higher distrust of police in the black community. At the time, both President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder acknowledged in public comments that there is a history of tension between police and the black community in many parts of the nation.

Blacks have historic reasons for being suspicious of police, Gabbidon said.

“The police have always been a part of black people's lives,” he said. He referenced a history of issues black people in America have had with the police since the abolition of slavery.

Umberger stressed the role of police is to remain unbiased.

“Police swear an oath to the law without regard to race or social standing,” he said.

http://www.pressandjournal.com/newsx/todays-news/6797-community-policing-can-build-relationships-that-foster-trust-panelists-say

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Oklahoma

Attorney: Man ignored Okla. officer's commands before shooting

The Department of Justice will conduct a civil rights investigation to determine if charges should be brought in the case

by Justin Juozapavicius

TULSA, Okla. — An attorney for a white Oklahoma police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man said the man ignored officers' commands, kept touching his pocket and was reaching through a window of his SUV when he was killed.

Police video from the incident Friday shows 40-year-old Terence Crutcher walking away from the officers and toward his SUV with his hands up then approaching the side of his vehicle, before an officer shocks him with a stun gun and he is fatally shot. Police were called to the scene to respond to a report of a stalled vehicle.

Police Chief Chuck Jordan announced Monday, before the video and audio recordings were released, that Crutcher had no weapon on him or in his SUV when he was shot. It's not clear from the footage what led Betty Shelby, the officer who fired the fatal shot, to draw her gun or what orders officers gave Crutcher. Shelby's attorney, Scott Wood, said Crutcher was not following the officers' commands and that Shelby was concerned because he kept reaching for his pocket as if he was carrying a weapon.

"He has his hands up and is facing the car and looks at Shelby, and his left hand goes through the car window, and that's when she fired her shot," Wood told the Tulsa World for a report Tuesday.

Local and federal investigations are underway to determine whether criminal charges are warranted in the shooting or if Crutcher's civil rights were violated.

Tulsa police helicopter footage was among several clips showing the shooting of Crutcher and its aftermath. In that video, a man in the helicopter that arrives above the scene as Crutcher walks to the vehicle can be heard saying "time for a Taser." He then says: "That looks like a bad dude, too. Probably on something."

Crutcher's twin sister, Tiffany Crutcher, called for charges Monday.

"The big bad dude was my twin brother. That big bad dude was a father," she said. "That big bad dude was a son. That big bad dude was enrolled at Tulsa Community College, just wanting to make us proud. That big bad dude loved God. That big bad dude was at church singing with all of his flaws, every week. That big bad dude, that's who he was."

Police video shows Crutcher walking toward his SUV that is stopped in the middle of the road. His hands are up and a female officer is following him. As Crutcher approaches the driver's side of the SUV, three male officers walk up and Crutcher appears to lower his hands and place them on the vehicle. The officers surround him, making it harder to see his actions from the dashboard camera's angle.

Crutcher can be seen dropping to the ground. Someone on the police radio says, "I think he may have just been tasered." One of the officers near Crutcher backs up slightly.

Then almost immediately, someone can be heard yelling, "Shots fired!" Crutcher's head then drops, leaving him completely lying out in the street.

After that, someone on the police radio can be heard saying, "Shots fired. We have one suspect down."

Officer Tyler Turnbough, who is also white, used a stun gun on Crutcher, police said. Shelby's attorney, Wood, said Turnbough fired the stun gun at the same time Shelby opened fire because both perceived a threat.

The shooting comes just four months after former Tulsa County volunteer deputy Robert Bates was sentenced to four years in prison on a second-degree manslaughter conviction in the 2015 death of an unarmed black man. Bates said he mistakenly grabbed his gun instead of his Taser. Shelby worked as a Tulsa County sheriff's deputy for four years before joining the Tulsa Police Department in December 2011, officials said. She has been placed on paid leave.

The initial moments of Crutcher's encounter with police are not shown in the footage, and Wood said the situation unfolded for about 2 minutes before the videos began. Shelby did not activate her patrol car's dashcam, said police spokeswoman Jeanne MacKenzie, and the ground-level video released Monday came from the car of a second officer who arrived at the scene.

Initial police briefings indicated Crutcher was not obeying officers' commands, but MacKenzie said Monday she didn't know what Crutcher was doing that prompted police to shoot. Two 911 calls described an SUV that had been abandoned in the middle of the road. One unidentified caller said the driver was acting strangely, adding, "I think he's smoking something."

After the shooting, Crutcher could be seen lying on the side of the road, blood pooling around his body, for nearly two minutes before anyone checked on him. When asked why police did not provide immediate assistance, MacKenzie said: "I don't know that we have protocol on how to render aid to people."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, which also called for charges, said Crutcher was left to bleed while officers stood by. The group's executive director, Ryan Kiesel, said Crutcher's death shows "how little regard" Tulsa police have for the community's minorities.

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the county courthouse Monday evening holding signs that read, "Justice 4 Crutch" and "Don't Shoot."

U.S. Attorney Danny C. Williams said the Department of Justice will conduct a civil rights investigation to determine if charges should be brought in the case.

Speaking Monday in Tulsa, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said Crutcher committed no crime and gave officers no reason to shoot him.

"When unarmed people of color break down on the side of the road, we're not treated as citizens needing help. We're treated as, I guess, criminals — suspects that they fear," said Crump, who is representing Crutcher's family just as he did relatives of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, black Florida teenager who was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012.

He said Tulsa police drew their own conclusions about Crutcher.

"So I guess it's a crime now to be a big black man," Crump said. "My God, help us."

http://www.policeone.com/police-products/less-lethal/articles/222648006-Attorney-Man-ignored-Okla-officers-commands-before-shooting/

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Google's self-driving car will automatically pull over for police

A new patent shows car sensors can recognize police lights and will move the vehicle to the side of the road when an emergency vehicle is passing

by PoliceOne Staff

Google's self-driving cars may feature the ability to automatically pull a car over when an emergency vehicle is arriving, according to a new patent.

The patent shows car sensors can recognize police lights and will pull the car to the side of the road.

According to readwrite, Google is conducting tests to collect data to teach the sensors the difference between emergency lights, traffic lights, and sunlight.

Police cars are the focus for now, although the feature might be expanded to other vehicles that require drivers to yield.

New Jersey

Ahmad Khan Rahami: What we know about the bombing suspect

by Catherine E. Shoichet

After bombings in New York and New Jersey, law enforcement officials say they have a suspect: Ahmad Khan Rahami.

Police captured Rahami after a shootout in Linden, New Jersey, on Monday morning.

His dramatic arrest came just hours after officials plastered his photo on a wanted poster, saying Rahami was wanted for questioning in connection with Saturday's blast that injured 29 people in New York City and an explosion that occurred near a charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey, earlier that day.

Authorities haven't publicly detailed how they believe he's connected to the bombings. While authorities believe they have their "main guy," sources said the investigation continues to determine if Rahami had help.

Authorities say Rahami was wounded in a shootout with police.

"Now that we have this suspect in custody, the investigation can focus on other aspects," New York Police Commissioner James O'Neill said, "such as whether this individual acted alone, and what his motivations may have been."

Here's what we've learned so far about Rahami:

What's his alleged connection to the bombings?

• Investigators "directly linked" Rahami to devices from New York and from Saturday's explosion in New Jersey, FBI Assistant Director in Charge William Sweeney said Monday. He declined to provide details about the evidence, citing the ongoing investigation.

• According to multiple officials, investigators also believe Rahami is the man seen on surveillance video dragging a duffel bag near the site of the New York explosion, and the location where police eventually found a suspicious pressure cooker four blocks away.

• Rahami's last known address was in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the FBI says. That's the same city where a backpack with multiple bombs inside was found Sunday night, but so far authorities haven't publicly said whether they believe Rahami is linked to those explosives. Sources say they believe he is.

Travels to Afghanistan and Pakistan

• The 28-year-old was born in Afghanistan and is a naturalized US citizen, according to the FBI.

• He traveled to Afghanistan multiple times, according to law enforcement sources. He was questioned every time he returned to the United States, as is standard procedure, but was not on the radar as someone who might have been radicalized, one official said. Another official said Rahami traveled overseas a good bit, visiting other countries.

• Rahami spent several weeks in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and Quetta, Pakistan in 2011, according to a law enforcement official who reviewed his travel and immigration record. Quetta is considered a stronghold of the Taliban. While there he married a Pakistani woman, in July 2011.

• Upon his return to the United States, he had to go through secondary screening because he visited an area of Pakistan known for its Taliban presence, according to the official. At that time, he told immigration officials he was visiting family and attending his uncle's wedding and renewing his Pakistani visa.

• Two years later, in April 2013, Rahami went to Pakistan and remained there until March 2014, the official said. Two other law enforcement officials confirmed to CNN that Rahami went to Pakistan for approximately a year.

• His brother Mohammad traveled to Pakistan around the same time. Mohammad posted on Facebook at the time that while in Quetta they had heard seven bomb blasts over 24 hours at one point, according to CNN's review of the page. Another posting during the trip is a photo of his brother Ahmad.

• During that time the official says Ahmad traveled by car to Afghanistan as well. When he returned to the United States he was once again taken into secondary questioning and told officials he was visiting his wife, as well as his uncles and aunts. The official said each time he was taken to secondary screening, he satisfied whatever concerns immigration officials had.

• The official says he was petitioning to bring his wife to the United States. He filed the paperwork in 2011 and it was approved in 2012. But the official said it was unclear if she ever came to the United States.

• In 2014 Rahami contacted Congressman Albio Sires' office from Islamabad, Pakistan saying he was concerned about his wife's passport and visa. It turned out her Pakistani passport had expired and the consulate wouldn't give her an immigrant visa until the passport was renewed, Sires said.

• Once the passport was renewed she found out she was pregnant and they told her they wouldn't give a visa until she had the baby, Sires said. They also told her when she had the baby they had to get an immigrant visa for the baby. At point Rahami claims the consulate told him to go back to Karachi, but he claimed it was too dangerous to go there. The congressman doesn't know what happened after that.

• Investigators are looking into whether he was radicalized overseas before returning to the United States in 2014, according to the official. On Monday, law enforcement said so far there is no indication he was on their radar before the weekend.

• The law enforcement official says Ahmad Rahami became a naturalized US citizen in 2011. He first came in January 1995, several years after his father arrived seeking asylum. The official says Rahami was given a US passport in 2003, while a minor, and again in 2007 after he said he lost his first one.

School and family in the United States

• He majored in criminal justice at Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey, school spokesman Tom Peterson said. Rahami attended the college from 2010-2012 but did not graduate.

• Rahami's family lives above First American Fried Chicken in Elizabeth, the city's mayor says. The family has a history of clashes with the community over the restaurant, which used to be open 24 hours a day, Mayor Chris Bollwage said. Investigators searched the building Monday, Bollwage said.

• The Rahami family alleged discrimination and harassment in a lawsuit filed against the city and its police department in 2011, arguing that officials conspired against them by subjecting them to citations for allegedly violating a city ordinance on hours of operation.

• The suit alleged that police officers and city representatives had said "the restaurant presented a danger to the community." It also accused a neighboring business owner of saying, "Muslims make too much trouble in this country" and "Muslims don't belong here." The defendants, including police officers and city officials, denied the allegations.

• Bollwage said Monday the 2012 ruling on the case favored the city, adding that the family's restaurant was "disruptive in the city for many, many years."

• In a Facebook post Monday, a family member asked for privacy.

"I would like people to respect my family's privacy and let us have our peace after this tragic time," wrote Zobyedh Rahami, who's believed to be Ahmad Rahami's sister.

How did authorities find him?

• Investigators first identified Rahami Sunday afternoon through a fingerprint, according to a senior law enforcement official. A cell phone connected to the pressure cooker also provided some clues, the official said.

• Harinder Bains, the owner of Merdie's Tavern in Linden, New Jersey, said he spotted Rahami sleeping in the doorway of his bar Monday morning and called police. Bains said he recognized Rahami after seeing pictures of the suspect on CNN.

• A foot chase ensued, during which Rahami shot at a police car, causing a bullet to graze another office in the face. The chase ended when Rahami was shot multiple times. He was taken to a hospital for surgery.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/19/us/ahmad-khan-rahami/

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NY, NJ bombings: Suspect charged with attempted murder of officers

by Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz, Emanuella Grinberg and Holly Yan

The man suspected in Saturday's bombings in New York and New Jersey was captured on Monday after a frantic manhunt and shootout.

Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, was charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer after a shootout Monday with police in Linden, New Jersey, Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park said. He is also charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

Authorities said Rahami is "directly linked" to bombings Saturday in New York City and Seaside Park, New Jersey, and is believed to be connected to pipe bombs found Sunday night in Elizabeth, New Jersey, sources said.

"We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

But many questions remain, chief among them, why did he do it? And, is anyone else responsible?

The arrest

Rahami was captured after the owner of a bar in Linden, New Jersey, found him sleeping in the doorway of his bar Monday morning. Harinder Bains, owner of Merdie's Tavern, said he was watching CNN on his laptop from another business across the street. At first, he thought he was some "drunk guy" resting in the vestibule. Then, he recognized Rahami and called police.

"I'm just a regular citizen doing what every citizen should do. Cops are the real heroes, law enforcement are the real heroes," Bains told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

When officers responded, Rahami pulled out a handgun and opened fire, striking an officer in the chest. A foot chase ensued, during which Rahami shot at a police car, causing a bullet to graze another office in the face.

The chase ended when Rahami was shot multiple times. He was taken to a hospital for surgery. Officers Angel Padilla and Peter Hammer were taken to the hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

Rahami was not initially cooperative with police who tried to interview him, a law enforcement official said.

Authorities believe the "main guy" has been caught but the investigation continues to determine if Rahami had help, sources told CNN.

Though FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr., said there is "no indication" of an active operating cell in the New York area, evidence suggests Rahami was not acting alone, sources told CNN.

As the investigation continues, law enforcement has stressed there is no reason to believe a bomber is on the run.

The investigation

Initially, a garbage explosion at a Marine Corps charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey, seemed to be an isolated incident. Two other unexploded bombs were found nearby and no one was wounded in the blast.

Then came another blast Saturday night in New York's Chelsea neighborhood, injuring 29 people. As law enforcement cordoned off the area, investigators found a pressure cooker four blocks away.

Dark-colored wiring was connected by silver duct tape to what appeared to be a cell phone. Ball bearings and BBs were among pieces of metal that appeared to be packed inside, a federal law enforcement official said. A handwritten note found next to it contained ramblings, including references to previous terrorists, including the Boston Marathon bombers.

Surveillance video shows a man believed to be Rahami dragging what appears to be a duffel bag with wheels near the site of the West 23rd Street explosion about 40 minutes before the blast, according to multiple local and federal law enforcement sources.

About 10 minutes later, surveillance video shows the same man with the same duffel bag on West 27th Street, multiple law enforcement sources said.

In the video, the man leaves the duffel bag where police later found the unexploded pressure cooker. After he leaves, the video shows two other men removing a white garbage bag believed to contain the pressure cooker from the duffel bag and leaving it on the sidewalk, according to a senior law enforcement official and another source familiar with the video.

Investigators have not determined if those two men are connected to the man with the duffel bag, the sources said.

Rahami was identified Sunday afternoon through a fingerprint, a senior law enforcement official said. Evidence from the cell phone on the pressure cooker also led to Rahmani's identification.

A traffic stop Sunday night of five people in New York led to searches and interviews in Elizabeth, New Jersey, said Sweeney with the FBI. Rahami's last known address was in Elizabeth, the same city where the backpack with explosives was found Sunday night.

The latest bomb discovery

The backpack with five bombs inside was found in a wastebasket around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday outside a neighborhood pub in Elizabeth, about 16 miles from New York City. Two men found the backpack about 500 feet from a train trestle and alerted police, officials said.

As bomb technicians deployed a robot to examine the devices, one of the bombs detonated. The remaining four were taken to an FBI laboratory at Quantico, Virginia, Elizabeth Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said.

Police checked all garbage cans in the immediate area but found no other suspicious items.

By Monday, authorities said they believed Rahami was linked to the explosion.

Who is the suspect?

Rahami first came to the United States in 1995 as a child, after his father arrived seeking asylum, and became a naturalized US citizen in 2011, according to a law enforcement official who reviewed his travel and immigration record.

Rahami traveled for extended periods to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the last five years, officials said. While in Pakistan in July 2011, he married a Pakistani woman. Two years later, in April 2013, he went to Pakistan and remained there until March 2014, visiting Afghanistan before returning to the United States.

Upon returning from both visits he told officials he was visiting family, satisfying any concerns immigration officials had at the time.

His family runs First American Fried Chicken in Elizabeth, the city's mayor said. The family has a history of clashes with the community over the restaurant, which used to be open 24 hours a day, Mayor Chris Bollwage said.

In 2011, the family sued the city of Elizabeth, and its police department, alleging discrimination and harassment against Muslims stemming from disputes over the restaurant's hours. Investigators searched the building on Monday, Bollwage said.

'Bigger than ever' NYPD presence

The bombings came as New York hosts world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly this week.

Heightened security across the city is common during the UNGA. But after the Chelsea bombing, Cuomo said 1,000 additional New York State Police officers and National Guard troops will be deployed to patrol bus terminals, airports and subway stations.

"You should know you will see a very substantial NYPD presence this week -- bigger than ever," de Blasio said.

Substantial police presence notwithstanding, life appears to have returned to normal, whether you call it resilience or resignation.

As President Obama said Monday, "we all have a role to play as citizens" by making sure we don't succumb to fear.

People in the region are tough and resilient, he said.

"They don't get scared," he said. "That's the kind of strength that makes me so proud to be an American. And, that's the kind of strength that is going to be absolutely critical, not just in the days to come, but in the years to come."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/19/us/new-york-explosion-investigation/

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Washington D.C.

More than 800 immigrants mistakenly granted U.S. citizenship

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has mistakenly granted citizenship to at least 858 immigrants from countries of concern to national security or with high rates of immigration fraud who had pending deportation orders, according to an internal Homeland Security audit released Monday.

The Homeland Security Department's inspector general found that the immigrants used different names or birthdates to apply for citizenship with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and such discrepancies weren't caught because their fingerprints were missing from government databases.

The report does not identify any of the immigrants by name, but Inspector General John Roth's auditors said they were all from "special interest countries" — those that present a national security concern for the United States — or neighboring countries with high rates of immigration fraud. The report did not identify those countries.

In an emailed statement, the Department of Homeland Security said the findings reflect what has long been a problem for immigration officials — old paper-based records containing fingerprint information that can't be searched electronically. DHS says immigration officials are in the process of uploading these files and that officials will review "every file" identified as a case of possible fraud.

Roth's report said fingerprints are missing from federal databases for as many as 315,000 immigrants with final deportation orders or who are fugitive criminals. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not reviewed about 148,000 of those immigrants' files to add fingerprints to the digital record.

The gap was created because older, paper records were never added to fingerprint databases created by both the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service and the FBI in the 1990s. ICE, the DHS agency responsible for finding and deporting immigrants living in the country illegally, didn't consistently add digital fingerprint records of immigrants whom agents encountered until 2010.

The government has known about the information gap and its impact on naturalization decisions since at least 2008 when a Customs and Border Protection official identified 206 immigrants who used a different name or other biographical information to gain citizenship or other immigration benefits, though few cases have been investigated.

Roth's report said federal prosecutors have accepted two criminal cases that led to the immigrants being stripped of their citizenship. But prosecutors declined another 26 cases. ICE is investigating 32 other cases after closing 90 investigations.

ICE officials told auditors that the agency hadn't pursued many of these cases in the past because federal prosecutors "generally did not accept immigration benefits fraud cases." ICE said the Justice Department has now agreed to focus on cases involving people who have acquired security clearances, jobs of public trust or other security credentials.

Mistakenly awarding citizenship to someone ordered deported can have serious consequences because U.S. citizens can typically apply for and receive security clearances or take security-sensitive jobs.

At least three of the immigrants-turned-citizens were able to acquire aviation or transportation worker credentials, granting them access to secure areas in airports or maritime facilities and vessels. Their credentials were revoked after they were identified as having been granted citizenship improperly, Roth said in his report.

A fourth person is now a law enforcement officer.

Roth recommended that all of the outstanding cases be reviewed and fingerprints in those cases be added to the government's database and that immigration enforcement officials create a system to evaluate each of the cases of immigrants who were improperly granted citizenship. DHS officials agreed with the recommendations and said the agency is working to implement the changes.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/800-immigrants-mistakenly-granted-u-s-citizenship-article-1.2798928

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California

Proposition 57 will reduce prison population; some say threatens public safety

by Paul Payne

A proposal before voters this November to make the state's less-violent prisoners eligible for release sooner has widened the gulf between law enforcement and advocates of reducing prison overcrowding.

Proposition 57, developed by Gov. Jerry Brown, would allow inmates to earn credits for completing educational and rehabilitation programs. It would also allow judges — not prosecutors — to decide whether to try certain minors as adults.

The measure is seen as a third step toward complying with a federal court order to reduce the state prison population, which now stands at about 128,000 inmates. Two previous measures, Proposition 47 in 2014, which reduced some felonies to misdemeanors, and a statewide prison realignment shifting inmates from prison to county jails in 2011 led to a drop in state prison rolls of tens of thousands of people.

Now, Brown is hoping voters will back the latest effort, which he said will free prison space for the most violent offenders while saving the state tens of millions of dollars. An estimated 7,000 inmates would be immediately eligible for consideration, officials said.

“I think it's a positive step in the right direction,” said David Koch, Sonoma County's chief probation officer. “It provides incentives to inmates to participate in programs to reduce recidivism.”

But the county's law enforcement leaders oppose Proposition 57, saying its passage will threaten public safety. Cotati police Chief Michael Parrish, president of Sonoma County Law Enforcement Chiefs Association, said some inmates eligible for release are anything but nonviolent. The proposal allows participants to include those convicted of crimes including rape of an intoxicated person, vehicular manslaughter, domestic violence causing trauma and human trafficking involving sex with minors.

Parrish said the previous prison-crowding measures have led to a double-digit spike in crime. He called Proposition 57 the “third strike against the safety of Californians.”

“How do we survive realignment, Proposition 47 and now this?” Parrish said. “It's not fair for our state.”

His concern is echoed by District Attorney Jill Ravitch, who estimated hundreds of inmates from Sonoma County would become eligible for parole. Among them would be Petaluma Ponzi-schemer Aldo Baccala, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2014 for defrauding real estate investors of $15 million. If Proposition 57 passes, he could apply to be released in three years, a Ravitch spokesman said.

“It's just poorly thought out,” Ravitch said. “In the rush to the ballot box, I think the author has failed to look at the implications here.”

Other criticisms are that it would treat career criminals the same as first-time offenders and roll back certain provisions in victims' rights legislation.

Ravitch said it comes at a time of increased calls for police service and the failure of Proposition 47 to deliver on promises to devote money to public safety.

“You have to peel back all this political nuancing and look at the reality of situation, which is that violent offenders going to be released,” Ravitch said.

Under the proposal, inmates serving time on nonviolent felonies shall be eligible for Board of Parole consideration after completing the full term of their primary offense. To be granted release, inmates must demonstrate they are rehabilitated and do not pose a danger.

The measure is expected to cost counties a few million dollars annually.

Public Defender Kathleen Pozzi, who supports Proposition 57, said it will prepare inmates for their return to society while cutting about a third off sentences for offenses including marijuana trafficking and theft.

She accused opponents of mischaracterizing some who would be released as too dangerous based on their prior convictions.

“The violent behavior happened in the past,” Pozzi said. “It's not the offense they are currently in on.”

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/6091393-181/proposition-57-will-reduce-prison?artslide=0

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Minnesota

Minn. mall stabbing could be realization of terror fears

The motive of Saturday's attack is still unclear, but the FBI is investigating it as a "potential act of terrorism" and ISIS claimed responsibility

by Jeff Baenen and Amy Forliti

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Authorities are investigating the stabbings of nine people at a Minnesota mall as a potential act of terrorism, a finding that would realize long-held fears of an attack in the immigrant-rich state that has struggled to stop the recruiting of its young men by groups including the Islamic State.

A young Somali man dressed as a private security guard entered the Crossroads Center mall in St. Cloud over the weekend wielding what appeared to be a kitchen knife. The city's police chief said the man reportedly made at least one reference to Allah and asked a victim if he or she was Muslim before attacking.

The rampage ended when the man was shot dead by an off-duty police officer. None of the injured suffered life-threatening wounds.

The motive of Saturday's attack is still unclear, but FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Rick Thornton said Sunday it was being investigated as a "potential act of terrorism" and that the Islamic State claimed responsibility. It wasn't clear whether the attacker was radicalized. Authorities were digging into his background and possible motives, looking at social media accounts and electronic devices and talking to his associates, Thornton said.

The attack in St. Cloud, a city of about 65,000 people, began shortly after an explosion in a crowded New York City neighborhood injured 29 people; a suspicious device was found a few blocks away and safely removed. Hours before that, a pipe bomb exploded in Seaside Park, New Jersey, before thousands of runners were due to participate in a charity 5K race. There was no immediate indication the incidents were linked.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton planned to meet with St. Cloud's mayor and other local officials Monday morning to discuss the case.

It doesn't appear anyone else was involved in the attack, which began at around 8 p.m. and was over within minutes, Police Chief Blair Anderson said.

Leaders of the Somali community in central Minnesota united Sunday to condemn the stabbings. They said the suspect — identified by his father as 22-year-old Dahir A. Adan — does not represent them, and they expressed fear of backlash. Minnesota has the nation's largest Somali community, with census numbers placing the population at about 40,000, though community activists say it's higher.

Terror recruiters have targeted young Somalis in recent years. More than 20 young men have left the state since 2007 to join al-Shabab in Somalia; the U.S. considers the eastern Africa militant group a terrorist group. Roughly a dozen people have left in recent years to join militants in Syria. In addition, nine Minnesota men face sentencing on terror charges for plotting to join the Islamic State group.

The possibility of an attack on U.S. soil has been a major concern for law enforcement. Stopping the recruiting has been a high priority, with law enforcement investing countless hours in community outreach and the state participating in a federal project designed to combat radical messages. If Saturday's stabbings are ultimately deemed a terrorist act, it would be the first carried out by a Somali on U.S. soil, said Karen Greenburg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University School of Law.

St. Cloud Mayor David Kleis said an attack like Saturday's is the type of worry that keeps him "up at night."

An Islamic State-run news agency, Rasd, claimed Sunday that the attacker was a "soldier of the Islamic State" who had heeded the group's calls for attacks in countries that are part of a U.S.-led anti-IS coalition. It was not immediately clear if the extremist group had planned the attack or even knew about it beforehand. IS has encouraged so-called "lone wolf" attacks, and also claimed past attacks that are not believed to have been planned by its central leadership.

Authorities haven't identified the attacker, but his father, Ahmed Adan, told the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune his son's name through an interpreter. Ahmed Adan said his son was born in Kenya but was Somali and had lived in the U.S. for 15 years. Local activists also identified Dahir Adan as Somali.

Ahmed Adan said police told him around 9 p.m. Saturday that his son had died at the mall and that the family's apartment had been searched, with photos and other materials seized. He said police said nothing to him about the mall attack and that he had "no suspicion" that his son had been involved in terrorist activity, the newspaper reported.

It wasn't clear what type of security uniform the man was wearing or whether he previously may have worked at the mall. Authorities said Sunday he wasn't a current mall employee.

Police had had three previous encounters with the attacker, mostly for minor traffic violations, Anderson said.

A spokesman for St. Cloud State University confirmed that Adan was a student there, but that he hadn't been enrolled since the spring semester. Spokesman Adam Hammer said Adan's intended major was information systems, a computer-related field.

Anderson said the man began attacking people right after entering the mall, stabbing people in several spots. The victims included seven men, one woman and a 15-year-old girl.

Five minutes after authorities received the first 911 call, Jason Falconer, a part-time officer in the city of Avon, began shooting the attacker as he was lunging at him with the knife, Anderson said, and continued to engage him as the attacker got up three times.

"He clearly prevented additional injuries and potential loss of life," Anderson said. "Officer Falconer was there at the right time and the right place."

The mall was expected to reopen Monday after being closed Sunday.

Photos and video taken hours after the incident showed groups of shoppers waiting to be released from the mall. Sydney Weires, 18, and two of her friends were shopping when the stabbings happened. Weires said she saw a man who appeared to be a security guard sprinting down the hallway, and then two men stumbled out.

"One was covered in blood down his face," she said, and the other man had blood on his back. "They were screaming, 'Get out of the mall. Someone has a knife,'" Weires said.

Falconer, who was shopping when he confronted the attacker, is the former police chief in Albany, about 15 miles northwest of St. Cloud, and the president and owner of a firing range and firearms training facility, according to his LinkedIn profile. His profile also says he focuses on firearms and permit-to-carry training, and teaches "decision shooting" to law enforcement students at St. Cloud State University.

No one answered the door late Sunday at a home address listed for Falconer, and voicemail for a telephone listing was not accepting new messages. In a brief interview with the Star Tribune, Falconer said he had "been trying to stay away from it all, for the time being."

He told the newspaper he wasn't hurt and declined to talk further, citing the ongoing investigation.

http://www.policeone.com/investigations/articles/222192006-Minn-mall-stabbing-could-be-realization-of-terror-fears/

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Fake gun, real crime: Police notice uptick in replicas

Officers have to make split-second decisions to ascertain whether it's a firearm or not, which can be nearly impossible to distinguish

by Michael Rubinkam

Whether they shoot BBs, pellets, paintballs or nothing at all, imitation guns can be indistinguishable from the real thing — it's one reason why some criminals gravitate toward them. Plus they're cheap and easy to get.

As Ohio authorities investigate the fatal police shooting of a 13-year-old boy who officers said pulled a realistic-looking BB gun from his waistband, law enforcement agencies are grappling with the use of fake guns to commit very real crimes.

"If I can't go get a real gun, it's easier for me to waltz into Wal-Mart or whatever store sells these things and go get a replica. Because if I go to a store to hold it up, the guy behind the counter isn't going to know it's not real," said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminal justice professor at the University of South Carolina.

While the federal government does not track criminals' use of toy or replica guns, some individual police departments say they've noticed an uptick.

In Edmonton, Canada, police said imitation guns were involved in 1,598 incidents in 2015 — up 38 percent from a year earlier.

In Arlington, Texas, suspects are increasingly using lookalike guns, including an incident earlier this year in which a man carjacked a woman using an air gun that resembled a real pistol, and another case involving a teen who threatened an officer with a replica gun. The officer managed to knock it out of the teen's hand and tackle him.

Arlington police Lt. Christopher Cook said that between March and August, nearly 20 percent of the weapons seized by police after they were used in crimes turned out to be lookalikes.

So far, police haven't had to use deadly force. But Cook said that could change in an instant.

"There's no training in the world that we know of where an officer can readily distinguish a real gun from a fake gun," he said. "That's not realistic, because officers have to make split-second decisions to ascertain whether it's a firearm or not."

A lookalike weapon is at the center of last week's fatal police shooting of Tyre King in Columbus, Ohio.

An officer responding to a report of a $10 armed robbery shot the teen after he pulled out a BB gun that looked "practically identical" to the weapon that police officers use, Columbus police said.

A 19-year-old who said he was the boy's friend told a newspaper that Tyre had a real-looking BB gun, was out to rob someone and ran from police. But an attorney for Tyre's family has called for an independent investigation, saying the family believes the boy's involvement in an armed robbery would be "out of character" and the police version of events "might not be true."

However the facts shake loose in Columbus, the use of replica guns in crime has long vexed law enforcement.

In the late 1980s, after a rash of high-profile police shootings of suspects carrying toy or lookalike guns, Congress authorized a study that found thousands of robberies and assaults to have been committed with imitation weapons between 1985 and 1989. The study also identified more than 250 cases in which an officer used force — deadly or otherwise — on a suspect brandishing an imitation gun.

More recently, Associated Press research found at least 25 deaths involving lookalike guns mistaken by police for actual firearms across the country in the last two decades, dating to the 1994 slaying by a housing police officer of a 13-year-old New York City boy.

"It's horrible, it's horrible, when these kids are displaying these firearms and a life is lost, and after the fact it turns out it's not real," said Allentown, Pennsylvania, police Capt. Richard London.

But he added it can be nearly impossible to tell an imitation gun from a firearm that shoots real bullets.

"It's human nature to defend yourself in the face of that," he said.

At least 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico have laws restricting the sale or use of imitation firearms, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, while many cities and towns have their own ordinances on lookalike guns.

Federal law requires imitation guns to have orange plugs in the barrel to distinguish them from real firearms, but the tips are easily removed and experts question their effectiveness.

http://www.policeone.com/Officer-Safety/articles/222074006-Fake-gun-real-crime-Police-notice-uptick-in-replicas/

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Texas

Dallas cop files suit accusing Black Lives Matter of inciting anti-cop violence

Sgt. Demetrick Pennie, president of the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation and a 17-year law enforcement veteran, filed the amended complaint in federal court Friday

by Marc Ramirez

DALLAS — A Dallas police sergeant has filed a federal lawsuit against Black Lives Matter leaders and others, blaming the movement for race riots and violence against police officers.

Sgt. Demetrick Pennie, president of the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation and a 17-year law enforcement veteran, filed the amended complaint in federal court Friday. Conservative news site Breitbart published the lawsuit in an article that evening.

The listed defendants include not only those associated with the Black Lives Matter movement but public figures such as the Rev. Al Sharpton, Louis Farrahkan, George Soros, the New Black Panthers Party and even President Barack Obama and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

According to the suit, the defendants "have repeatedly incited their supporters and others to engage in threats of and attacks to cause serious bodily injury or death upon police officers and other law enforcement persons of all races and ethnicities."

The suit accuses the defendants of inciting supporters and others "to engage in threats and attacks" against law enforcement officers around the country, including the July 7 murders of five Dallas officers by Micah Johnson after a Black Lives Matter demonstration.

Pennie is being represented by Larry Klayman of lobbying organization FreedomWatch.

"Sergeant Pennie and I feel duty-bound to put ourselves forward to seek an end to the incitement of violence against law enforcement which has already resulted in the death of five police officers in Dallas and the wounding of seven more, just in Texas alone," Breitbart quoted Klayman as saying in a release.

The 66-page complaint seeks damages of more than $500 million.

A Dallas Morning News editorial in July commended Pennie for inviting Cleveland Browns football star Isaiah Crowell to attend the funeral of one of the slain Dallas officers after Crowell briefly posted an anti-police image on social media in anger over the deaths of African-Americans in police-involved shootings nationwide.