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MJ Goyings
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Many thanks to our very own "MJ" Goyings, a resident of Ohio,
for her daily research that provides us with the news related material that appears on the LACP & NAASCA web sites. |
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Kansas
Kansas Officer Embraces Idea of Community Policing
A Kansas police officer has helped a local resident get back on her feet through community policing.
by Kathy Hanks
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Several days a week Reni Clift volunteers washing dishes in the kitchen at Elmdale Senior Center.
That's a massive switch from her former life, spending her days camped out with all her possessions piled in a red wagon. Now she has a small apartment to call home and has been applying for work at local businesses.
Clift has come a long way because someone took the time to create a trusting relationship. While many reached out when they saw her on the street, her typical response was she didn't need help.
Hutchinson Police Department Community Resource Officer Anna Ruzhanovska, however, heard those words and didn't give up. With the help of Erica Rivera, a Prairie Independent Living coordinator, they built a bond. Slowly, over time Clift came to accept what they had to offer - friendship.
"I feel close to them because they helped me a lot," Clift told The Hutchinson News .
When she was hungry, Rivera brought her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
"Anna came and got me at Larned," Clift said. "That's a long drive."
Last summer, they began forging the relationship. At a time when the Hutchinson Police Department received numerous complaints about Clift, from reports of her showering in Avenue A Park to obstructing the sidewalk with her personal belongings and hooking up her radio to a city outlet.
Ruzhanovska had contacted Clift in the past. But when the officer reached out again in July, she suggested coming up with a list of creative solutions to help Clift connect with family, find stable, permanent housing and get mental health assistance.
Clift would tell people she was 21. But she was 38, born in December 1979. Ruzhanovska learned this and other insights into Clift's character through contacting family in Wichita and Texas . One refused to help; others were not capable of taking her into their homes. An aunt said she would pray for her.
By making the contacts, Ruzhanovska learned Clift had various mental health issues. She had moved to Hutchinson with her mother, who set up state benefits automatically deposited to a debit card. Life looked under control until Clift stopped taking her medication and relapsed. Her mother became ill and couldn't provide for her daughter any longer. She was told to leave. She became homeless, and that's when she began living on the streets of Hutchinson.
Clift's mother died in 2015. But Clift believed her mother was still alive and tried regularly calling her on the phone. The homeless woman even imagined seeing her mother driving around Hutchinson.
Whenever Ruzhanovska asked Clift what she needed, such as goods, services or shelter, her response was always nothing. She said her family deposited money on her debit card in return for labor.
Ruzhanovska continued reaching out, even driving Clift to First Call for Help, in hopes of getting her supplies.
What Ruzhanovska discovered was certain items would trigger negative emotions, sending Clift into a panic. Just the color of the blue bag filled with supplies from First Call sent Clift fleeing the building.
Ruzhanovska became concerned, because it appeared Clift couldn't make rational decisions. She received the assistance of a caseworker with Kansas Department for Children and Families. They offered Clift a temporary motel room, but she refused all services.
Ruzhanovska began bringing Clift home cooked meals, a duffle bag, shoes, clothing, even an old cell phone from home.
Despite efforts to help, they both were exhausting all their resources. At the same time, complaints kept coming from the public through phone calls and emails.
People would give Clift items, and by August her red wagon was growing taller, making it difficult to pull. She would leave it in one place. There would be more complaints. It was in violation of city ordinances, so one solution was to keep the wagon in Avenue A Park during the day, moving it back on Main Street at night when the park closed.
That wasn't the solution Ruzhanovska or her partners, Community Resource Officers Darrell Tossie and Stephen Schaffer, were looking for.
With the help of Erica Rivera of the Prairie Independent Living Center, the officers started working with Clift to help get her birth certificate, social security number and state ID. Once that was accomplished, she was set up with the Salvation Army to help manage her finances.
"I gained her trust," Ruzhanovska said. "She was OK getting in an unmarked vehicle sitting in the front seat."
By the first of the year, Clift had a setback and had to go to Larned for a week. All her possessions and the red wagon were tossed in a field, by a person who had brought Clift to her home and was renting her a room.
Ruzhanovska felt like everything they had worked for was falling apart. But the officer was determined not to give up on Clift. Ruzhanovska and another police officer went to the field and retrieved all her belongings and put them in the HPD storage.
Meanwhile, Rivera was able to find Clift an apartment. Ruzhanovska drove to Larned and brought Clift back to Hutchinson. Ruzhanovska took Clift to the Reno County Food Bank where they were able to stock her apartment with food. Employees with the HPD and Reno County Sheriff's Department donated items including a bed, linens, a comforter, dining table and even a TV to furnish her apartment.
"She was overwhelmed," Ruzhanovska said. "She didn't have a residence for so long."
The CRO program has been in operation for a year and a half.
"This is a small part of what we do," Ruzhanovska said. The job has allowed her time to build the support and help provide the services to Clift.
Despite her willingness to help, Ruzhanovska said there were times when Clift could be challenging.
"Anna has gone above and beyond what anyone else would have done," said Tossie. "She spent 14 to 16 hour days helping her."
Now they talk just about every day on the phone. When Ruzhanovska is off duty, she takes calls from Clift. On a recent afternoon Clift called and Ruzhanovska told her she would help install blinds in the apartment.
As long as Clift stays on her medication a fresh start awaits her.
If it hadn't been for the resolve of Ruzhanovska, Clift could still be living on the streets of Hutchinson, with all her belongings piled atop the red wagon.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kansas/articles/2018-03-30/kansas-officer-embraces-idea-of-community-policing
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Wisconsin
More Community Policing Needed?
Critics say Police Department must be more accountable.
by Jabril Faraj
During the tenure of recently departed Chief Edward Flynn , the Milwaukee Police Department was involved in a number of high-profile incidents that have whittled away at its already tenuous relationship with residents. The department has also been sued for allegedly conducting pedestrian and traffic stops that disproportionately affect people of color and violate their constitutional rights.
One of the ways to begin rebuilding trust, community members said at two recent community events, is for the Milwaukee Police Department to hold officers accountable for interactions with community members. African-American Roundtable Director Markasa Tucker , chair of the Milwaukee Collaborative Reform Initiative 's community committee, added that police must be willing to work with the community to address the root causes of violence.
“Clearly what they've been giving us is not what's needed,” she said. “It's not working.”
The events, held at the Washington Park Senior Center, 4420 W. Vliet St., and Wisconsin Black Historical Society, 2620 W. Center St., focused on identifying solutions to issues identified by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) draft report , leaked late last year. The report was the only tangible outcome of a months-long collaborative reform process initiated by MPD in early 2016 and ultimately buried by the Trump Administration. Community groups have since taken the lead on gathering resident feedback, with the hope of securing changes to police policy.
Though MPD has claimed to engage in community policing for years, the report found that it does not have a department-wide community policing strategy; officers generally do not understand community policing; and MPD does not evaluate officers on problem-solving or interactions with residents. The report notes that “police-citizen interactions can have a profound effect on the legitimacy of the police department.”
Nikotris Perkins , 33, who grew up in the central city and lives near North 45th and West Center streets, said the Community Liaison Officer (CLO) in her neighborhood “knows the community” and is a valuable resource for residents. However, she said every officer should engage with the community in that way.
Perkins, who recounted occasions in which she felt officers approached her out of suspicion, added that she wishes they would be more inquisitive and helpful.
“That's a different approach than, ‘You're clearly doing something wrong and I caught you,'” Perkins said. “That's not usually the approach I've felt with police.”
And LaQuan McMahan , 22, who also attended the Washington Park Senior Center discussion, said he would like police to listen to people's stories and take into account the effect a particular action will have on the individual involved.
MPD Acting Assistant Chief Ray Banks , who was promoted when Alfonso Morales was named interim chief of police, said MPD is creating a department-wide community policing strategy. He added that officers will be trained on community policing practices, reminded of their responsibilities in daily roll calls and evaluated on those measures.
“All of those things are coming,” said Banks. “In order for our organization to be successful, we need community input.”
However, the complaint process — the primary vehicle for regular feedback — has been criticized by residents as largely ineffective. Residents who attended the Black Historical Society hub said that complaints are not handled in a timely manner and MPD does not follow up with those who make complaints. The group agreed that the department should have standard guidelines for how long it should take to resolve a complaint. And Tucker said perhaps an independent person, not employed by MPD, should take complaints at every district office.
McMahan added that there should be a mechanism to incorporate feedback outside of the complaint process. He suggested that MPD officers be reviewed annually based on feedback from residents, solicited by “a trusted group of people who are elected by the community.”
He added that this approach might be “a way of circumventing the nuances of implicit bias” because officers would answer directly to the people they are policing.
Tucker said that accountability must begin immediately. She expects the Common Council, Fire and Police Commission and MPD to honor the community's recommendations, adding that feedback will not end with this process.
“We want to see police policies change,” Tucker said. “2020 [is] around the corner — people are going to remember,” she added, referring to the mayoral and Common Council elections.
Tucker said there will most likely be more community feedback hubs scheduled in early April, which will focus on youth. The Fire and Police Commission will take feedback online at least through mid-April.
https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2018/03/30/more-community-policing-needed/
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Illinois
Chicago sees drop in killings, shootings over 13 months
More officers, use of tech credited
by Brad Parks and Darran Simon
CHICAGO (CNN) - Killings and shootings continue to dip in Chicago, a city long plagued by gun violence, according to crime figures released Sunday.
March marked the 13th consecutive month of declining gun violence, the Chicago Police Department said. Shootings dipped 17% and murders dropped 25% compared to March 2017, figures show.
Year-to-date, murders dipped 22% and shootings dropped 25% compared to the same period in 2017, Chicago police said.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the city still has a long way to go to curb gun violence despite the steady progress.
"We are making progress and certainly it's not cause for celebration," Johnson said. "But when you look at it you do have to acknowledge progress."
The nation's third largest city has made considerable gains over the past year. Chicago saw a 16% drop in murders from 2016 -- the deadliest year in nearly two decades, with the city recording 771 murders -- to 2017, when there were 650 murders.
"It's a marathon, not a sprint," Johnson said. "As long as we keep trending the way we are and we keep developing these relationships and partnerships and continue to invest in our police department, then we'll see the gains that we're looking for."
Chicago police attributed the recent declines to the hiring of more officers, stronger community policing efforts and investments in technology, such as gunshot detection systems and predictive crime software to help deploy officers. The technology has been rolled out in nearly half of Chicago police districts, police said.
Max Kapustin, research director at the University of Chicago Crime and Education Labs, said the recent declines are encouraging, but it's too early to celebrate.
"There are still way, way, way too many people being shot and being killed in the city," he said. "The progress is real and it's very important people realize that. It's incremental, though, and we've still got a long way to go."
Kapustin said it's important police continue to make breakthroughs in more neighborhoods
and don't lose the gains they have made in specific areas.
Year-to-date, Chicago police have recovered more than 1,900 guns, which is up 3% over last year, according to the department.
"I think gun recovery numbers are also very important. They're a good predictor of what sort of year we're going to have, I think, because the violence that we're seeing is gun violence, period," Kapustin said.
Johnson said the department will continue to increase its patrol numbers. Police said 86 new officers were deployed in March to bolster the 720 officers already hired as part of a two-year plan to add nearly 1,000 positions.
He said the department will also try to re-establish community partnerships in the coming months.
"CPD can't do this alone, so we need those community partners to help us continue the crime reduction," Johnson said.
President Trump has often criticized Chicago's crime rate, usually talking or tweeting about the failure to fight gun violence there. Trump has also deployed federal authorities to the city.
Chicago isn't the only city to see recent crime reductions.
Baltimore, a city with one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the country, did not record a homicide for 11 days in February, the longest homicide-free period since March 2014.
In 2017, New York recorded its lowest homicide tally in decades, with 290 killings, the lowest since 1951, CNN affiliate PIX11 reported. The tally in New York last peaked in the early 1990s, with more than 2,000 killings a year, according to figures.
https://www.local10.com/news/national/chicago-sees-drop-in-killings-and-shootings-for-13-consecutive-months
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Alaska
Community patrols booming in Anchorage amid crime spike
by Devin Kelly
First, there were the posts on social media, saying people were walking through the Abbott Loop neighborhood, jiggling locked car doors.
Then, at community council meetings, Patti Higgins started hearing about attempted break-ins and other problems with petty crime.
Next thing you know, Higgins was ordering white flashing lights on Amazon and affixing a sign on her mom's old white Subaru Forester that said "Abbott Loop Community Patrol." Now Higgins, the council president and former Anchorage School Board member, goes out a few times a month to patrol the area and report suspicious activity to police.
Amid a spike in property and violent crime and a barrage of posts in Facebook groups and on Nextdoor.com about suspected crime, community patrols — neighbors who drive around and look out for problems — are suddenly blossoming in Anchorage.
Four have started within the past six months alone: Abbott Loop, Sand Lake, Eagle River and the Oceanview/Old Seward area. That's twice the number of traditionally active community patrols, which started in the 1990s and 2000s. Those patrols, with longtime volunteers, have been concentrated in east Anchorage neighborhoods — Nunaka Valley, Mountain View and College Gate.
But the new patrols, particularly in South Anchorage, are another sign of worries about crime creeping across town.
Interest in patrols has waxed and waned, but it's more likely to be waning, Liz Patrick, a teacher's assistant in an elementary school who has been patrolling College Gate since 2004.
"This wax is really interesting," Patrick said. "And we need it."
Property crime rates, while lower than peaks seen in the 1970s and early 1990s, have been rising since 2012. The rate of vehicle thefts has been double what it was in 2014, police data show.
The state also passed a controversial package of criminal justice reforms known as SB-91, which many new patrol members feel is abetting the crime problem. Meanwhile, the membership of the neighborhood networking app Nextdoor.com has skyrocketed since launching in Anchorage in 2014, making people more attuned to reports from their neighbors of suspicious activity.
The brand-new patrollers see themselves as eyes and ears for a busy police department, and a way to ease chronic fears about crime without resorting to vigilantism. Each person who signs up has to pass a background check and go through an interview process, according to rules adopted by the Anchorage Coalition of Community Patrols. The coalition holds meetings the first Friday of every month.
It's a fine line: If they come across something, they don't get involved. They call 911.
Other, less-structured community groups that have cropped up in the past year, like the "A-Team," which helps track down stolen cars.
Justin Doll, the Anchorage police chief, said he's supportive of citizen efforts to share information to locate stolen property and identify suspects for police. It's the latest in a history of active community patrols, and typical of Alaskans, he said.
"If there's a problem, people want to pitch in and help solve it," Doll said. "In my mind, that's a very Alaskan response to be willing to be part of the solution."
He said it's been "tremendously useful" to have the information from patrols feeding to the police department. The main caution, he said, is against groups getting actively involved in a crime scene.
It's a line Higgins and the other new patrolers will now be navigating.
Hitting the streets
Early on Thursday afternoon, Higgins put on a neon-yellow vest and climbed into a white Subaru labeled "Abbott Loop Community Patrol." She called the Anchorage Police Department's non-emergency line to tell a dispatcher she was going out on patrol.
Then she headed out into the neighborhood, which runs east from the Seward Highway between Dowling and O'Malley Roads. There are big-box stores and small businesses, an industrial quarter, a mobile home court, residential subdivisions and parkland.
This was Higgins' fourth time patrolling. She drove to a park divided by Little Campbell Creek, with benches and pullouts. She pulled up, parked the car and read aloud a message she received on Nextdoor.com.
"Check Meadow Park at 67th and Meadow. There are normally lines of cars at the park waiting. It's really annoying," Higgins read from the message. "Definitely drugs, sometimes seems like prostitution."
She looked around. At the moment, her Subaru was the only car in sight.
"This must be a down time for drug-dealing," Higgins said.
In her patrols so far, Higgins has yet to call in a crime that led to an arrest. But she said she had seen a lot of concerned or even angry posts on Nextdoor, with some neighbors threatening to hurt burglars or thieves.
She said she hoped that by going to places people pointed out, it could have a calming effect.
In the Sand Lake area, at the southern edge of West Anchorage, several dozen people have signed up for a brand-new community patrol. About 10 are moms.
One of them is Nikki Rose, the community council president. She has a 4-year-old son.
Rose said her son is why she's doing the patrol, she said. She was raised in Sand Lake and remembers going off with friends and biking around the neighborhood. She's too worried to let her son do that now.
She recalled a tense community council meeting about two years ago, where neighbors turned up to talk about items stolen out of yards and about finding drug paraphernalia in parks.
When Rose became council president, she heard from Glen Yancha, who started South Anchorage's first community patrol in the Bayshore area in December 2016. Yancha offered her training, and she took him up on it. Now people are patrolling the Sand Lake area every night of the week, Rose said.
Yancha works two full-time jobs and patrols less than he used to, he said. But he believes they make a difference.
'Where would I go if I was a criminal?
In the Bayshore area, one patrol member stopped by a vehicle that was on the side of the road, Yancha said. It turned out the person behind the wheel was driving drunk and didn't have permission to take the car, he said. APD ended up arresting the person, Yancha said.
Yancha said he's excited about getting patrols in new areas.
"They do cover a lot of area for South Anchorage," Yancha said.
Yancha also helped start the patrol in Abbott Loop, and in Eagle River, which launched in November 2017. The patrol expands the area covered by the Birchwood Community Patrol, which has existed for about a decade.
At first, the Eagle River patrol consisted just of Cliff Cook, a retired member of the U.S. Air Force. But its membership has steadily grown.
So far this winter, this patrollers have driven more than 3,000 miles, volunteering more than 300 hours, Cook said.
Mostly, the work has involved helping cars that slid off icy roads, and giving people a heads-up that they left their garage doors open. But Cook said he and other patrolers have called police about "walkers," or people checking for unlocked car doors in parking lots.
Cook said social media has shone a bright spotlight on crime. He himself hasn't been the victim of a crime since he forgot to lock his car in 2003 and someone stole his phone out of it.
But he doesn't think the sense of insecurity is just in Eagle River.
"There's probably still pockets of the small town feel (in Alaska), where you still don't lock your house or car," Cook said. "But I think it's slowly dwindling."
Other community councils have been discussing the idea of patrols, the latest being the Government Hill Community Council. Doll, the police chief, said his department's community policing team can come talk to emerging groups about how to work with police.
While there has been a surge in enthusiasm for the patrols, money is tight. The Alaska Legislature used to regularly give grants to the patrols, but that's since dried up. There's talk of all the patrols pushing as a group to renew the funding.
Cook is working toward becoming a nonprofit, like the neighboring and longer-standing Birchwood Community Patrol. For now, his patrol is accepting donations through the Federation of Community Councils.
Other patrols are fundraising and talking to businesses about sponsorships. One business donated fluorescent paint so Higgin's sign would show up at night. She doesn't plan on being reimbursed the $70 for the light for her car.
When Higgins was running for School Board, she walked every part of the neighborhood, knocking on doors. She looks at it a different way while she's patrolling, she said.
"Now it's like, oh, where would I go if I was a criminal?" she said.
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/crime-courts/2018/04/01/community-patrols-booming-in-anchorage-amid-crime-spike/
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Florida
How Parkland students feel about their new mandatory clear backpacks
by Dianne Gallagher, Emanuella Grinberg and Paul P. Murphy
Survivors of a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, returned from spring break Monday to new security measures that some students said made them feel like they were in prison .
Marjory Stoneman Douglas students encountered security barriers and bag check lines as they entered campus Monday morning.
Inside the school, administrators handed out the students' newest mandatory accessories: a see-through backpack much like the ones required at some stadiums and arenas, and an identification badge they must wear at all times.
The bags were yet another stark reminder of how much had changed since a former student stormed the hallways on February 14, gunning down 17 people, junior Kai Koerber said.
First, students lost their classmates and teachers. Now, with the bags, they're sacrificing their privacy for what he and others consider an ineffective security measure.
"It's difficult, we all now have to learn how to deal with not only the loss of our friends, but now our right to privacy. My school was a place where everyone felt comfortable, it was a home away from home, and now that home has been destroyed," he said.
'This backpack is probably worth more than my life'
The shooting galvanized a student-led movement calling for stricter gun laws, and some students used the clear bags to make a political statement.
Koerber and others attached an orange price tag to their bags. The $1.05 tag is intended to protest politicians , including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who accept money from the National Rifle Association, by putting a price on each student.
"We are doing this in order to demonstrate the fact that we stand together on all issues, and that we, as a student body, refuse to be reduced to nothing more than dollars and cents," Koerber said.
Senior Delaney Tarr tagged Rubio in a tweet of a picture of her bag with feminine products and the orange price tag attached to it.
"Starting off the last quarter of senior year right, with a good ol' violation of privacy!" she said in another tweet.
In addition to displaying the orange tag, senior Carmen Lo stuffed a sign into her backpack that read "this backpack is probably worth more than my life."
She also wonders how students will carry sports equipment, instruments and laptops.
"Many students are actually unhappy with the clear backpacks, as they believe that it infringes on their privacy, so they wrote messages on pieces of paper and put it into the clear backpacks," she said.
"We come to school to learn, so I don't think that we should need to subject ourselves to these measures. We shouldn't need to worry about our safety and our security while we are at school."
Solution or pacification?
Koerber thinks metal detectors would be more effective than clear backpacks.
"Just implement a system that works. Similar to what they do at court houses and the airport!" he said. "It's terrible that girls will have no privacy concealing their feminine products, and these bags won't last a week with real textbooks in them. Metal detectors are a better solution."
The school district said it's considering whether to install metal detectors at the school's entrances. A letter from Principal Ty Thompson sent to families on Friday said that step has not been taken yet.
Clear backpacks may deter some from bringing weapons into school, but without metal detectors people can still conceal them in folders or in between papers, junior Isabella Pfeiffer said.
And backpacks won't prevent firearms from getting in the hands of dangerous people in the first place, she said. It would not have prevented the February 14 rampage, because the gunman was not a student.
"This isn't a solution to making sure that a tragedy like the one that happened at Douglas doesn't happen again," she said. "Many of us think that this is a way that legislators can pacify us instead of enacting actual change."
Junior Connor Dietrich used tissue paper to obscure the contents of his bag. He, too, thinks the bags are not the answer to preventing guns from getting into the hands of the wrong people, which is what he and other students are fighting for.
"You know it's only difficult because if we were being listened to and common sense gun legislation was brought into play we wouldn't need all of this to be safe."
Junior Jack Macleod said he is not opposed to the clear backpacks if they are used with other safety measures, such as metal detectors or wands.
But safety may come at the cost of a productive school environment, he said.
"I definitely feel safer, but in no way is school going to be a place of cognitive education and creativity when it feels like a jail cell," he said.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/02/us/marjory-stoneman-douglas-clear-backpacks/index.html
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California
Police talked with YouTube shooter hours before attack--and say they didn't notice anything disturbing
by Faith Karimi, Holly Yan and Joe Sutton
Eleven hours before she shot up YouTube headquarters and then killed herself, Nasim Najafi Aghdam chatted with police.
It was 1:40 a.m. Tuesday, and Aghdam was hundreds of miles away from home. Police found her car overnight at a Mountain View parking lot, about 30 miles southeast of YouTube headquarters.
A quick check of her license plate revealed the owner had been reported missing from the San Diego area three days earlier.
"We contacted the woman inside the vehicle, who was asleep, to check on her and to determine if she was the same person who had been reported missing," Mountain View police said.
"At no point during our roughly 20 minute interaction with her did she mention anything about YouTube, if she was upset with them, or that she had planned to harm herself or others ... she was calm and cooperative."
So officers notified her family and let her go.
But Aghdam's brother said he called police about his sister, an animal rights activist with a serious grudge against YouTube.
Website rails against YouTube
Police are investigating a website that appears to show the same woman lambasting YouTube for restricting her videos.
Authorities have not confirmed whether the site belonged to Aghdam. But on Wednesday, San Bruno police Chief Ed Barberini said "we know (Aghdam) was upset with YouTube, and now we've determined that was the motive."
The website lists four YouTube channels for the woman -- one in Farsi, one in Turkish, one in English and one devoted to hand art. It also lists an Instagram page that focuses on vegan life.
The woman's grievances against YouTube appear to be centered around censorship and revenue.
"There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!" one post reads. "Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!"
Another post accuses "close-minded" YouTube employees of putting an age restriction on videos, saying it's aimed at reducing views and discouraging the woman from making new videos.
On a YouTube channel, the same woman described herself as a vegan bodybuilder and an animal rights activist. But by Tuesday night, the account had been terminated, with a YouTube message citing "multiple or severe violations" of its policy.
The website's postings aren't limited to YouTube. Videos on several social media platforms include posts on animal rights, vegan lifestyle and the political system in Iran. Others include a bizarre mix of musical parodies.
Two calls, two different accounts.
When Aghdam's brother learned her car was found in Mountain View, he worried she "might do something."
"I Googled 'Mountain View,' and it was close to YouTube headquarters. And she had a problem with YouTube," Aghdam's brother told CNN affiliate KGTV .
He said he warned police that "she went all the way from San Diego, so she might do something."
But Mountain View police said they received no warning that Aghdam might do anything violent.
After discovering Aghdam in her car, police called the woman's father and brother.
"The father confirmed to us that the family had been having issues at home, but did not act in any way concerned about why his daughter had left. At no point during that conversation did either Aghdam's father or brother make any statements regarding the woman's potential threat to, or a possible attack on, the YouTube campus," Mountain View police said.
"Roughly one hour after our phone call to Aghdam's family, her father called us back to let us know that she made a series of vegan videos for her channel on YouTube and that the company had recently done something to her videos that had caused her to become upset."
But once again, police said, "At no point did her father or brother mention anything about potential acts of violence or a possibility of Aghdam lashing out as a result of her issues with her (YouTube) videos."
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/04/us/who-is-nasim-aghdam-youtube-shooter/index.html
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How Common Are Female Mass Shooters?
Nasim Aghdam, a 39-year-old woman, allededly shot three people at YouTube's headquarters
by Korin Miller
Yet another mass shooting is making headlines after 39-year-old Nasim Aghdam allegedly opened fire in a courtyard at YouTube's headquarters in California on Tuesday, wounding three people, before apparently turning the gun on herself, CNN reports.
According to the Associated Press , a 36-year-old man is in critical condition, a 32-year-old woman is in serious condition, and a 27-year-old woman is in fair condition after the attack. Another person was reportedly injured trying to escape from the shooting.
How common are female mass shooters?
Unlike many other recent mass shootings, the shooter at YouTube headquarters was a woman. This is extremely uncommon, says former chief of police John Matthews, executive director of the Community Safety Institute and author of Mass Shootings: Six Steps to Survival . “Shooters are typically male,” he says.
According to a 2013 study by the Department of Justice and the FBI, only 3 percent of all mass shootings between 2000 and 2013 involved a woman shooter. That's just six women shooters total over the course of 13 years.
What motivates women to commit mass violence?
Motivations for mass shootings often remain unknown, Matthews says. However, when a motive can be identified, it's almost always revenge—and that's true of male and female shooters, he says. “They believe that an injustice has been done to them,” Matthews says.
"Women are much less likely to become shooters, but when they do, it is often in circumstances similar to the YouTube shooting...work-related grievances are a common motive," Sherry Hamby, Ph.D., editor of the journal Psychology of Violence and a research professor of psychology at University of the South , tells Women's Health .
In general, female murderers are more likely to kill family members or intimate partners than male murderers—but those are often single-victim crimes, Hamby says. The YouTube shooting is unusual for a female perpetrator because all the victims appear to be strangers to Nasim, as far as we know, she says.
A "surprising number" of mass shooters lash out in response to some perceived injustice, and can't seem to separate the people who work for an organization from the organization itself, Hamby says. "There's also often a sense of entitlement that can be seen here," she adds.
In general, women are "much less likely" to be violent than men. "The more extreme the form of violence, the less often the perpetrator is female," Hamby says.
What we know about the YouTube shooting
Nasim's alleged motives for the shooting are still unknown. However, Nasim's father, Ismail Aghdam, told The Mercury News that his daughter, who used YouTube to post workout clips and vegan cooking tutorials, “hated” the company because it allegedly started censoring her videos and stopped paying her for content. (YouTubers can receive payment for ads that go with their videos, but the company “de-monetizes” some channels for various reasons, meaning ads don't run with them, The Mercury News says.)
Nasim's brother told local news outlet KGTV that he had warned police that his sister "might do something" after her car was found in Mountain View, California early on Tuesday morning—just a few miles away from YouTube's headquarters.
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a19682322/youtube-shooter-woman/
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Washington D.C.
Trump to order National Guard troops to southern border
Homeland Security secretary says details about the size and scope of the deployment haven't been finalized
by Laura Figueroa Hernandez
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will sign an order Wednesday deploying National Guard troops to the southern border, in the administration's latest move to try to curb illegal immigration, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said.
Nielsen, speaking at Wednesday's White House press briefing, said details about the size and scope of the operation were still being finalized and not yet available.
“We do hope that the deployment begins immediately,” Nielsen said, adding that the administration was working with border state governors to execute the deployment.
Nielsen's announcement came a day after Trump declared to reporters at the White House that he was prepared to send U.S. troops to the Southern border until his long promised border wall is fully funded and built.
Trump alluded to Wednesday's announcement in a morning tweet that said his administration “will be taking strong action today,” on what he called the nation's “weak” border laws.
“Our Border Laws are very weak while those of Mexico & Canada are very strong. Congress must change these Obama era, and other, laws NOW!” Trump tweeted. “The Democrats stand in our way — they want people to pour into our country unchecked . . . CRIME! We will be taking strong action today.”
The call for troops at the border comes amid the president's growing frustration that Congress has not authorized the full $25 billion in border wall funding he is seeking. Senate Democrats initially offered their support for the funding as part of a deal to save the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that shields young immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as minors from deportation, but have since objected to Trump's total request as negotiations on DACA have stalled.
The $1.3 trillion spending package recently passed by lawmakers includes only $1.6 billion for border wall funding, and the bulk of that money must be used to repair existing parts of the wall, not for new construction.
The move to militarize the border with National Guard troops — which former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have also previously done during upticks in border crossings — comes at a time when arrests for border crossings are at a record low, according to federal figures. There were more than 310,000 arrests made by border patrol agents in 2017, compared to a high of 1.6 million in 2000, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/trump-border-troops-1.17858153
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Washington D.C.
Who is tracking D.C. cell phone? Homeland Security confirms finding surveillance devices in Washington
by Jason Murdock
An undisclosed number of surveillance devices known as “Stingrays”—used to track and intercept smartphone communications by posing as legitimate cell towers—are suspected to be in operation across Washington D.C., leading to fears foreign governments are using them to snoop on the capitol.
Homeland Security revealed in a March 26 response to Democratic senator Ron Wyden that its National Protection and Programs Directorate [NPPD] had spotted “anomalous activity…that appears to be consistent with International Mobile Subscriber Identity [IMSI] catchers,”—the formal name for the technology.
The NPPD acknowledged that the “malicious use of IMSI catchers is a real and growing risk” and said use by foreign spies would be unlawful and has the potential to threaten the security of communications and personal privacy of U.S. citizens.
The DHS letter was obtained and first reported by the Associated Press , which said, citing a DHS official, that the alleged devices were found in a 2017 audit. It remains unclear exactly how many devices were discovered or at what locations.
The surveillance equipment is used by law enforcement to track and monitor the phone calls of targets by duping the handset into believing it is connected to an authorized cell tower. According to the EFF , cell-site simulators, another name for the technology, are now used by the FBI, DEA, NSA, Secret Service and ICE, as well as the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and the National Guard.
The cost varies depending on the capability needed, but one Stingray device in a marketing brochure published by The Intercept in 2015 is valued at $134,950. The previous year, a team of mobile security analysts raised concerns that cell phone tracking equipment was in place across sensitive areas in Washington D.C.
At the time, experts suggested that foreign governments could be spying on the city, which is home to a slew of political and law enforcement entities, from the FBI to the White House. Based on Wyden's letter, sent on November 17 last year, it is a suggestion the senator deemed alarming. He said such activity, if found, would “pose a significant threat to our country's national and economic security.”
The Democratic official noted that despite the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) establishing a task force to investigate the experts' claims, it had issued no further guidelines on the issue of IMSI cell-catcher surveillance.
Hide and Seek
Homeland Security official Christopher Krebs noted in his response to Wyden that his agency does not currently have the ability to locate IMSI devices.
He wrote: “NPPD is not aware of any current DHS technical capability to detect IMSI catchers. To support such a capability, DHS would require funding to procure, deploy, operate and maintain the capability, which includes the costs of hardware, software and labor.” He said the findings had always been shared with federal partners (which were not named) and that work with the FCC remains ongoing.
Mobile security expert Aaron Turner, who was involved in the 2014 D.C. study, told the Associated Press that foreign embassies were likely involved in the use of Stingray technology. He claimed that equipment used by Russia can snoop on targets up to a mile away from the source. Meanwhile, privacy advocates complain that official use of the devices is still “shrouded in government secrecy.”
The EFF, which has worked with the ACLU on legal cases involving IMSI use, states on its website : “Some cell-site simulators are small enough to fit in a police cruiser, allowing law enforcement officers to drive to multiple locations, capturing from every mobile device in a given area—in some cases up to 10,000 phones at a time.
“Cell-site simulators invade the privacy of everyone who happens to be in a given area [although] the vast majority have not been accused of committing a crime.”
http://www.newsweek.com/who-tracking-dc-cell-phones-homeland-security-confirms-finding-surveillance-871331
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Minnesota
Minneapolis police toughening body camera rules
Minneapolis officers must activate their body cameras before they arrive at their destination when they are dispatched to an incident
by Steve Karnowski
MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis police officers must activate their body cameras before they arrive at their destination when they are dispatched to an incident, and will face "progressive discipline" if they don't comply, the Minneapolis Police Department announced Wednesday.
The department news release describing the tighter rules did not detail how they would be enforced or the nature of the promised "progressive discipline." Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and Mayor Jacob Frey were scheduled to speak publicly about their plans late Wednesday morning.
The department faced strong criticism last summer after two officers involved in the fatal shooting of an unarmed Australian woman , Justine Ruszczyk Damond, failed to activate their body cameras when they were dispatched to her home. The officer who killed Damond, Mohamed Noor, has been fired and is charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Arradondo tightened up the department's body camera policy soon after Damond was killed to require officers to turn their cameras on when responding to every call or traffic stop, but nine months later compliance remains lackluster.
An internal audit in September found that officers were activating their cameras more often, but that use of the technology was inconsistent and some officers never turned them on at all. The City Council then instructed the department to report quarterly on compliance.
But Deputy Chief Henry Halvorson conceded at a council hearing in February that the department was still not tracking whether all officers were routinely using them, nor had it fully staffed an office that was supposed to review footage to ensure that officers complied.
The new rules require officers to activate their cameras at least two blocks from their destinations, or immediately if dispatched to a closer incident. Officers are also required to notify their supervisor if a camera malfunctions. The supervisor will then decide if the officer remains on call.
Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Minneapolis Police Federation, the union that represents the city's officers, did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the tighter rules.
Minneapolis launched a body camera pilot project in 2014, just months after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, and rolled out the technology throughout the department in 2016. The fatal police shooting of Jamar Clark in Minneapolis in November 2015 and the ensuing street protests added impetus to the project because the two officers involved in that incident didn't have body cameras.
https://www.policeone.com/patrol-issues/articles/473103006-Minneapolis-police-toughening-body-camera-rules/
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New York
Kin of bipolar black man rips NYPD for fatal Brooklyn shooting
by Adam Shrier and Thomas Tracy
(Pictures on site)
The outraged family of the 34-year-old Brooklyn man lashed out against the NYPD Thursday morning as they tried to cope with his death.
“It's a piece of iron and they kill him for a piece of iron,” Vassell's aunt Nora Ford, 59, said bitterly, describing the object her nephew was holding.
Police mistook the metal rod Vassell was holding for a weapon and opened fire on him at Utica Ave. and Montgomery St. in Crown Heights about 4:40 p.m. Wednesday. The bullets struck him multiple times.
The NYPD released a surveillance image after the shooting showing Vassell gripping it with both hands and pointing it at plainclothes cops arriving at the scene.
Vassell, who is bipolar, died at Kings County Hospital.
The shooting occurred as the nation paused to reflect on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King.
Ford visited the shooting scene Thursday morning.
“I just want to touch the blood where he died,” she said. “I bet if he was a white kid, they wouldn't fire a shot at him like that."
Residents described Vassell as a harmless neighborhood nut they would often find talking to himself on the street where he was killed.
Despite his difficulties, he always found time to help his family, Ford said.
“He came by my house to help me with my computer,” she said. “I said to him, ‘I don't know how to use a computer.' He said, 'Auntie, I got you.'”
“He's just loving. He was very well-loved,” she added.
A high-ranking police source said that surveillance video taken from the area shows that Vassell was acting as if the hunk of metal he was holding was a gun.
"It was tragic what happened, but it was a good shooting," the source said. "This guy had some mental issues and there was alcohol involved. Based on what he was doing and what he had in his hands, it's no doubt its going to be justified.”
Police said they were responding to three 911 calls about Vassell after he started pointing the object at pedestrians.
NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said that, after being confronted by cops, he “took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers.”
Three of the four arriving officers shot at Vassell, firing off 10 rounds.
Eyewitness Jesus Santiago, 55, said he saw Vassell arguing and aiming the rod at residents before the shooting but thought nothing of it, saying it was typical and harmless behavior.
"We know him around here," he said. "He's a little bit crazy but he don't bother us."
Santiago estimated 20 to 30 seconds elapsed from the time police arrived till shots were fired.
"Everything happened so fast," he said. "The officers arrived and somebody said, 'He's got a gun.' Nobody said nothing to him. They just started shooting."
Santiago said police were just a few feet from Vassell when they opened fire.
"You could see from a distance that it wasn't a gun," he said. "Why the hell did you have to shoot him ten times?"
Neighborhood resident Bob Dylan, 29, said that Vassell always had the metal rod — which Dylan believes is a showerhead — with him.
“He never had it out, he just kept it on his waist,” Dylan said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/kin-bipolar-black-man-rips-nypd-fatal-brooklyn-shooting-article-1.3915962
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South Carolina
Anderson Co. deputies hit streets to promote positive policing
by Nicole Ford
ANDERSON Co., SC ( WSPA)- - With the warm weather, a number of Anderson County deputies are hitting the streets on foot.
It's all part of Sheriff Chad McBride's initiative for more community policing. Several school resource officers, who are on spring break, as well as road deputies walked the roads and neighborhoods across the county checking on the area, interacting and asking what matters to the community.
“To understand the communities concerns you have to have your boots on the ground and have all barriers taken away from you and the ability to communicate with these people one on one and face to face," said Sgt. Mark Gregory with ACSO.
7News spoke with people in the community where deputies were patrolling who said they were encouraged by the positive signs of law enforcement. They tell us the deputies were more approachable on foot, and they appreciate the opportunity to voice their concerns.
http://www.wspa.com/news/anderson-co-deputies-hit-streets-to-promote-positive-policing/1102042783
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Florida
Tampa police doing a good job, survey says, especially if you're older, white and affluent
by Charlie Frago
TAMPA — Tampa residents gave their police department high marks overall in a recent survey, but police didn't fare as well among African-Americans, younger millennials and the poor.
While 68 percent of respondents approved of police performance, only 41 percent of black residents shared that view. Just over a quarter of those 18-25 gave police the thumbs up.
"The numbers overall were good," said Steve Hegarty, police department spokesman. "You can see where the soft spots are and where we need to do some work."
The Citizen Review Board asked New York University School of Law's Policing Project to conduct the voluntary survey of 601 people between Oct. 20 and March 16. It wasn't a statistically valid random sample — like a typical political poll would be — and the results skewed older and whiter than the city's demographics.
The results were released last week. The survey was paid for with federal grants and proceeds from property seized during investigations.
"You can't take this poll and say X percentage of Tampa disapproves of the police department," said Farhang Heydari, deputy director of the Policing Project. "It's possible you're getting more of the extremes. One possibility is that people who care more about policing are responding."
The low levels of support for the police among black residents — just 30 percent of black men surveyed approve of the police — doesn't surprise council member Frank Reddick, who fought to establish the citizen review board in 2015.
"It's a continuing problem. The police department was making progress in the black community, but each time that seems progress is being made, the police take a step or two backward," Reddick said.
The low approval ratings have to take into account the small sample size — only about 50 black males responded — and the current national climate on policing and black communities, Heydari said.
Citizen Review Board chairman Rasheed Ali Aquil agrees.
"The African-American community as a whole due to recent activities across the nation feel a little skeptical about law enforcement," Aquil said. "It's going to take years of being on the right side of the fence to change that opinion.
"But I think it's a combination because of the numerous bicycle stops — there are some that hold grudges and frustration about that."
A 2015 Tampa Bay Times investigation found black bicyclists were disproportionately ticketed by Tampa police.
Hegarty pointed to another finding that caught Chief Brian Dugan's eye: The single biggest factor in whether people approve of police performance is if they've had a positive interaction with an officer.
"Being out in the community and having a positive interaction with people makes all the difference in the world," Hegarty said.
That dovetails with another survey result: Community policing ranked first in what respondents thought the Citizen Review Board should examine. Body cameras came in second.
Aquil said his 3-year-old volunteer committee wanted to take the pulse of city residents' perceptions of the police and the survey accomplished that. Aside from more focus on community policing and body cameras, residents wanted the board to look into police interactions with the mentally ill, use of force and bias training.
"The results will give us a lot of material to work with," Aquil said.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/Tampa-police-doing-a-good-job-survey-says-especially-if-you-re-older-white-and-affluent_167015035
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New Jersey
Town halls and meetings with community groups and law enforcement will be held periodically
by Rose Krebs
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal has announced an initiative to improve relations between the public and law enforcement, including meetings or town halls with community leaders, groups, and those in law enforcement to address concerns and issues.
The state attorney general has announced a new initiative aimed at improving the relationship between law enforcement and communities.
The initiative, called “The 21 County 21 Century Community Policing Project,” will include a minimum of four town halls annually with the community and those in law enforcement to discuss concerns and issues.
Also, about 80 events across the state in the next year will aim to promote better relations between police and the public, according to the Attorney General's Office.
“Every day, law enforcement officers across New Jersey work closely with the members of the public to keep our streets safe,” said Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal. “But that does not mean we cannot do better, and strengthening police-community relations in New Jersey is one of my top priorities.”
Grewal acknowledged that a divide exists between law enforcement and some communities and that it is sometimes “created by misunderstandings rooted in past events.”
As part of the initiative, each county prosecutor will be tasked with hosting a public meeting with community leaders every few months. Each meeting will focus on certain areas of concerns or topics. On some occasions, county prosecutors may hold joint events.
During his first year on the job, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina has already attended various meetings with community leaders and local law enforcement agencies aimed at addressing issues such as gun violence and the opioid epidemic.
The meetings will be open to the public and various groups will be invited, including those in law enforcement, religious organizations, civil rights groups, community leaders, and high schools, colleges and universities.
Topics to be discussed over the next year include officer-involved shootings, the opioid epidemic, immigration enforcement and bias crimes, according to the Attorney General's Office. Grewal will attend at least one meeting in each county.
For information about the initiative or a schedule of county events, visit nj.gov/oag/2121 .
http://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20180406/town-halls-and-meetings-with-community-groups-and-law-enforcement-will-be-held-periodically |
