Thursday, March 14th, 2013 — Good Afternoon, Stay Safe
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NOTE: There will be no newsletter tomorrow or on the weekend. A Happy St. Patty’s Day to all. The newsletter will be back on Monday. — Mike
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NYPD License Plate Readers Will Be Able To Track Every Car Entering Manhattan
By Matt Sledge — Wednesday, March 13th, 2013; 5:08 p.m. ‘The Huffington Post’ / New York, NY
NEW YORK -- The ring of steel is expanding. New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly announced a "major project" at a budget hearing on Tuesday to install license plate reader cameras "in every lane of traffic on all of the bridges and tunnels that serve as entrances and exits to Manhattan."
Soon, no one will be able to drive onto or off of the island without potentially being recorded.
Currently, Kelly said, the NYPD has "complete" coverage on the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges and the Battery and Holland Tunnels. License plate readers will be commissioned for additional bridges by this summer. The devices can quickly scan license plate numbers and submit the time and place they were captured to a database.
Kelly also said the department has mounted a high-resolution camera on an NYPD helicopter and given it "sophisticated down-link technology to provide real-time, high-quality video of incidents as they unfold." The commissioner has expressed interest in flying unmanned drones to watch over demonstrations as well.
Kelly did not state the cost of the license plate reader program. But along with data from other major NYPD electronic surveillance initiatives -- the Argus cameras mounted on streets in neighborhoods and the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative that integrates private cameras from banks and other institutions -- the license plate data will be fed into a $30-40 million comprehensive dashboard produced by Microsoft called the Domain Awareness System.
While the new measures could arguably come in handy if the city ever faces another terrorist attack, privacy advocates are raising questions about what sort of safeguards the NYPD uses to protect the data it collects.
Last month, The New York Times reported that the police department had built a database of 16 million license plates.
Department policy states that license plate data can be stored for at least five years. The department did not respond to a request from the Huffington Post on the civil liberties protections in place.
As license plate readers have exploded as a technology used by police (and repo men), privacy advocates are increasingly concerned that they represent a surveillance dragnet. Police can easily find out whether an ordinary citizen has visited a strip club, a school or a mosque. Civil libertarians argue that this represents a quantum leap in intrusiveness from the ordinary cop on the beat taking down a plate number.
The New York Civil Liberties Union said it was concerned by Kelly's announcement. The organization has sued both the NYPD and the Department of Homeland Security for more details on cameras in Lower Manhattan, to little success so far.
“License plate readers have the potential to track, record and store information forever on every single motorist on our streets, regardless of whether drivers are actually suspected of any crimes or not,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said in a statement. “We need legal protections to limit the collection, retention and sharing of our travel information.”
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67 Precinct / PBBS
3rd day of protests for NYC teen shot by police
By COLLEN LONG and JAKE PEARSON (The Associated Press) — Thursday, March 14th, 2013; 8:04 a.m. EDT
NEW YORK (AP) — For a third straight day demonstrators gathered in Brooklyn to protest the New York Police Department after the fatal police shooting of a teenager.
More than 100 people attended a candlelight vigil Wednesday night for 16-year-old Kimani “Kiki” Gray just blocks from where he was shot to death by police Saturday night.
But anger was palpable as a group of young people heckled police officers in helmets and later marched down a street.
The vigil’s organizers tried and failed to calm the young people, some of whom later threw bottles at police officers.
“I’m not going to tell people don’t be angry because we’re all angry,” said Franclot Graham, whose teenage son, Ramarley Graham, was shot and killed after police chased him into his Bronx home last year. A New York police officer has been charged with manslaughter in the death. “It’s OK to vent but you have to respect the family’s wishes and be peaceful,” he said.
Police said late Wednesday that 18 people were arrested and that one officer suffered a gash in the face after he was hit by an object tossed from a building.
A spokesman for Gray’s parents said they would not speak publicly as long as there was violence, which he said has “clouded their message.”
“It’s a tough time for the community,” said the spokesman, Rev. Gilford Monrose. “But the family and myself do not condone the violence.”
The latest protest came after the medical examiner’s office ruled that Gray was hit seven times, and had wounds in both the front and back of his body, including his shoulder, rib cage, forearm and legs.
The teen was with a group Saturday night, but left when he saw police in an unmarked car, police said. Authorities said he was acting suspicious and plain clothes officers approached him. According to police, Gray pointed a .38-caliber revolver at them, and they opened fire. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
A gun was recovered at the scene.
Gray was black. The officers involved in the shooting were black and Hispanic. They have been placed on administrative duty.
A police officer may use deadly force when the officer has a reasonable fear of serious injury or death. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the shooting appeared to be within those guidelines.
But Gray’s family maintains he wasn’t armed, and people in his Brooklyn community were outraged over the shooting.
“I want to see justice,” said Jamal Williams, 18, a friend who grew up with Gray in the same East Flatbush neighborhood. “I want to see these cops taken down.”
On Monday, at a vigil for the teen, dozens of people threw bottles and damaged some stores. Police released surveillance video of two of the convenience stores, where people are seen throwing fruit and stealing. In one, the cashier cowers in a corner as people loot the shop.
“I don’t think that should have any relationship to a peaceful demonstration,” the police commissioner said of stealing from the registers.
Kelly said the group was disorderly, but didn’t characterize it as a riot as some local newspapers did.
Rickford Burke, president of the New York Caribbean Institute and an organizer of Wednesday’s vigil, said he condemned the looting. He said the disorderly response came from a deep feeling of frustration in the community that police officers regularly harass and target young black men.
“The police department has proven to be racially inattentive to black communities and this one is no different,” he said.
A second cousin of the victim, Ray Charles, said he was devastated to learn of Gray’s death — and was still having trouble accepting the NYPD’s official version of events.
“My cousin was scared of guns,” said Charles, 35. “I honestly just want justice. They didn’t need to shoot him like that.” Charles did not protest Wednesday night but said he encouraged people to take to the streets.
“The real issue in Brooklyn is cops have been harassing us for a long time,” he said. “It needs to stop.”
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Enraged protesters battle cops in Brooklyn streets during third night of rioting after it's revealed that 16-year-old Kimani Gray was shot in the back
As fights between cops and angry teens erupted in East Flatbush, 46 were arrested Wednesday night. Police struggled to control a furious crowd that broke away from a planned peaceful vigil.
By Chelsia Rose Marcius AND Shane Dixon Kavanaugh — Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The New York Daily News’
Protesters enraged over the fatal shooting of a teenager by police poured into Brooklyn streets for a third straight night Wednesday, pitching bricks, bottles and garbage in furious clashes with cops.
At least 46 demonstrators were arrested along Church Ave. in East Flatbush. Police struggled to control a hostile crowd that broke away from a planned peaceful vigil for Kimani (Kiki) Gray, 16, killed by police on Saturday night.
Gray’s sister Mahnefeh was among those arrested. A police officer suffered a gash in the face when a tossed brick hit him, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, and a window was smashed in an inspector’s car.
“They didn’t have to kill him,” Makaeo Williams, 18, said as police on motorcycles tracked alongside him. “I’m feeling mad inside. I’m angry. That’s why I’m out here.”
Many in the community contest police allegations that Gray pointed a gun at cops when he was shot during a confrontation with two plainclothes officers on E. 52nd St. Saturday night. Those suspicions on the street intensified Wednesday when an autopsy report revealed Gray was hit by seven bullets — three to the back.
It was not clear in what order the shots struck the teen or whether he had his back to the police when they opened fire .
A witness told the Daily News Tuesday that the youth did not have a gun in his hand. But a police spokesman said the witness told detectives she couldn’t see the incident clearly “from the angle I was at.”
A woman who identified herself as Gray’s cousin told news outlets Wednesday that the teen was carrying a gun for a friend and was trying to alert cops that he had a weapon when he was shot. A loaded .38-caliber revolver was recovered at the scene.
The trouble Wednesday night began soon after more than 200 people set off from the vigil site at Church Ave. and E. 55th St. around 8:30 p.m.
Dozens chanted “NYPD, KKK, how many kids did you kill today” as they marched west on Church Ave. toward the 67th Precinct stationhouse.
But things quickly got out of hand as some protesters tried to climb on police motorcycles. Men and women were pepper-sprayed and thrown to the ground and handcuffed.
“I’m scared for everything, myself, my store, my workers,” said Salm Sami, 45, who owns the Deli, Grill & Grocery at Church and New York Aves. “This is three days of this.”
The protesters eventually backtracked to the vigil site where the parents of Ramarley Graham — an unarmed teenager fatally shot by police in the Bronx last year — were waiting. “It never seems to end,” said Frank Graham, Ramarley’s father. “The community has a right to be angry.”
But City Councilman Jumaane Williams, a frequent NYPD critic, blasted outsiders who he said escalated tensions. “Please stay the HELL out of our community will only agitate our kids,” Williams fumed on Twitter. “It’s dangerous and counterproductive.” "
With Thomas Tracy, Joe Kemp and Rocco Parascandola
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Second Vigil for Slain Brooklyn Teen Turns Violent
BY Danny Gold — Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The Wall Street Journal’ / New York, NY
A candlelight vigil for an East Flatbush teenager shot and killed by police over the weekend turned violent Wednesday night, as protesters ran through the streets and clashed with police officers along Church Avenue for the second time.
The vigil in honor of 16-year-old Kimani Gray had been planned as an occasion for his grieving mother to address mourners and the media, but her remarks never happened. Instead, activists encouraged some of the 200 people to march towards the New York Police Department’s 67th Precinct, ending in dozens of arrests.
The teenager was fatally shot by two plainclothes police officers late Saturday night after he allegedly pointed a .38 caliber revolver at them. Police said the boy had been approached by the officers because he was behaving suspiciously and fiddling with his waistband — suggesting he was concealing a weapon. Family and friends of the teenager have disputed that he had a gun.
The officers, who have not been identified, fired 11 shots and hit the teenager seven times, according to results of an autopsy released earlier Wednesday.
Joy Cutting, a family friend who said she had known Mr. Gray since birth, believed the autopsy showed the teen hadn’t been pointing a gun at the officers. “If he was trying to shoot the cops, they would have shot him in the front,” she said at the vigil.
Investigators determined Mr. Gray was struck once in the back of his left shoulder, once in back of each thigh, twice in the front right thigh, once in the left rib cage and once in the left forearm. A spokeswoman for the city’s chief medical examiner said the coroner was still investigating the details shooting.
Clergy leaders from the neighborhood and political officials didn’t participate in the march that splintered off from Wednesday night’s vigil, as a large number of teenagers moved west on Church Avenue. The march quickly turned chaotic, with groups of protesters breaking off and dashing into the streets.
What followed was hours of protesters’ clashing with police punctuated by arrests. At times, protesters threw bottles, bricks and chairs at police officers and police vehicles.
Two blocks east of the 67th Precinct, a young protester was seen throwing a brick through the back window of a police cruiser. An officer responded by using pepper spray a number of protesters.
A law-enforcement official said Thursday that the incident resulted in a total of 46 arrests, including three juveniles, mostly for disorderly conduct. Three police officers were injured and four police department vehicles were damaged.
One woman was also injured, telling police she had been hurt by participants in the protest, the official said. One reporter was hit by a projectile and received treatment at Kings County Hospital.
By 10:00 p.m., many of the protesters who had broken away returned to the vigil at 55th Street and Church Avenue. Tensions seemed to be decreasing until Mahnefah Gray, sister of the teen killed by police, was arrested while crossing the street. That touched off a new round of clashes, with protesters egging on police and officers responding with orange netting and more arrests.
“An officer grabbed her arm while she was crossing the street, and she jerked it to push him away,” said Anthony Barnwell, 21, who identified himself as a cousin. “Then three cops grabbed her and slammed her on the ground.”
City Councilman Jumaane Williams, who had helped organized the vigil and tried throughout the night to deescalate the confrontations between protesters and police, took to Twitter to criticize those he felt had instigated the rampage. Mr. Williams tweeted that he was “furious at adults from OUTSIDE the community who incite our angry young people!!! You do not help and not wanted if you bring destruction!”
Anger over Mr. Gray’s killing had also been evident late Monday, when a group of about 40 people splintered from a previous vigil to confront police. The rampage damaged several businesses, including a raid on a local Rite-Aid store, as well as at least one city bus and passing cars.
– Pervaiz Shallwani contributed to this post.
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Anger in East Flatbush Persists Over Teenager’s Killing by the Police
By J. DAVID GOODMAN — Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The New York Times’
First came the shooting: an armed teenager killed by police officers on a darkened Brooklyn street.
Then came the anger: a Monday evening vigil marred by an unruly young mob thrashing its way through local businesses; a second protest the next night; and another on Wednesday night, after which, the police said, someone hit an officer in the face with a brick, another brick was thrown through the window of a police van, and there were 45 arrests — mostly for disorderly conduct.
By the time an autopsy of the 16-year-old was released Wednesday, the tension in East Flatbush could be measured in the silently flashing lights of squad cars parked at tight intervals along Church Avenue.
For some, the sight of extra police officers meant a potential reprieve in an area troubled by crime. For others, it was anything but reassuring.
The police said that two plainclothes officers fatally shot the teenager, Kimani Gray, just before 11:30 p.m. on Saturday after he brandished a revolver and pointed it at them. The police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said Tuesday that the police had interviewed three witnesses, “two of which say that the officers said, ‘Don’t move.' ”
“Another witness said an officer says, ‘Freeze,' ” he said. The officers then fired 11 shots, the police said.
Seven bullets hit Mr. Gray, including three that entered his body from the rear, according to the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
The autopsy did not establish the order in which the bullets struck Mr. Gray, or determine the path of the bullets, which might make clearer if Mr. Gray had his back to the officers when he was shot, or if he had twisted away after being struck from the front.
But the findings, inconclusive though they were, appeared likely to heighten the tensions of a community already distrustful of the police and increasingly incensed about the shooting of the teenager.
On Wednesday night, about 200 people attended the vigil. The gathering became unruly when about half of them splintered off and marched to a nearby police precinct station house. After officers in riot gear set up a roadblock on Church Avenue, Mr. Gray’s sister Mahnefah tried to cross the street and was put into a police car. She was given a summons and released. Some of the protesters shouted, “That’s the sister,” then started throwing bottles when the police would not release her. Someone hurled a chair. Screams could be heard as skirmishes broke out on side streets.
For local residents, many of whom voiced skepticism about the official account, the situation surrounding Mr. Gray’s death was grimly familiar. Less than a year before, and only blocks away, a narcotics detective shot and killed an unarmed 23-year-old woman, Shantel Davis, as she tried to flee the police in a car that had been reported stolen at gunpoint, the police said at the time.
Vigils followed that shooting as well. But soon the rhythms of daily life returned, marked by what young men and women said was a daily backbeat of police stops.
“You try to put it out of your mind,” said Ms. Davis’s sister Crystal.
In interviews around East Flatbush, many spoke of a Police Department that, in its aggressive pursuit of gangs and informal criminal crews, had sown distrust, especially among young men and women, who feel that their encounters with officers often have racial overtones.
At a barbershop along Church Avenue, two men on Tuesday were discussing the recent shooting when an Asian delivery cyclist pulled onto the sidewalk across the street. “See that guy?” said Elverton Thomas, 39, a black man and telemarketer who was there for a haircut. “He can ride on the sidewalk. We can’t.”
His barber, Julian Clark, also black, concurred. Two years before, he said, an officer stopped him in front of the shop for sidewalk riding, and then arrested him after the officer said his identification had expired; he spent a day in custody sorting it out, he said.
“They have a hard time because there’s a lot of crime in the neighborhood,” he said of the police. “But when they play hardball, they end up going after innocent people, too.”
The seemingly constant presence of the police in the lives of many youths — both on the street and, increasingly, monitoring conversations on social media — has left many feeling suffocated, said Shanduke McPhatter, 35, an ex-gang member who works with young men in the neighborhood. “I understand the state of mind that these youths have,” he said. “The problem is there is no relationship with the police.”
At the same time, he said, the situation on the streets has grown more complex for law enforcement: gangs are less organized, replaced instead by informal crews with few requirements and in which leadership is frequently up for grabs among increasingly young members.
“The police say, ‘Look at these kids, they’re wild,' ” Mr. McPhatter said. “And then they use that as an excuse to be wild themselves.”
The Rev. Terry Lee, who runs a local youth ministry and acts as a liaison to the police, said many of the neighborhood shootings involved “kids killing kids” and lamented that the community did not rise up more frequently in anger over those shootings. But he said he understood why. “The community we’re living in can get dangerous at times,” he said. “People are afraid of retaliation.”
Mr. Lee said the local 67th Precinct had grown more open to the community in recent years. “The problem is, people still don’t want to go to the police,” he said.
The autopsy report on Mr. Gray did not specify which of the seven bullets caused the death of the teenager; that determination awaits further investigation.
One bullet entered his left shoulder in the rear; two other bullets struck the back of his thighs, one in the left thigh and one in the right. Two bullets struck from the front, hitting his right thigh; one bullet entered his left side, striking his lower rib cage; and the last bullet hit his left lower forearm.
John C. Cerar, the former commander for firearms training at the Police Department, said many factors could explain the wounds to the front and back of Mr. Gray’s body.
“Most of the time, it’s the person making a turn, or the position of the officers,” he said, or some combination of the two. Once that person has a gun, he said, the threat to the officers is imminent.
Mr. Gray’s revolver was loaded with four bullets, the police said.
Mr. Kelly, the police commissioner, said Tuesday that there was “nothing to indicate that this shooting was outside the guidelines.” Mr. Cerar concurred, saying, “Under the reported circumstances, it appears to be a good shooting.”
But raw feeling in the neighborhood fueled accounts at wide variance with that provided by the police. Some said Mr. Gray, while armed, did not point the gun; others said they had heard that there had been no gun at all, or that his hands had been in the air. A family friend, Kevin Blacks, 33, said he was not surprised that the autopsy had found that Mr. Gray had been shot so many times or hit from behind.
He said he had spoken to Mr. Gray’s parents. “The dad is shook,” Mr. Blacks said, standing by a makeshift memorial for Mr. Gray. “He doesn’t sleep. He doesn’t talk. He’s still in a dream.”
Local elected officials and clergy members, seeking to lower the temperature in the neighborhood, mostly did not issue new statements Wednesday.
“Our focus right now is to get the funeral service together,” said Gilford T. Monrose, a local pastor and community leader who is working with the family on the service; a date had yet to be set, he said.
On Tuesday, police investigators could be seen inside a Rite Aid store where, the night before, a group of at least three dozen mostly young people briefly rampaged through the aisles, turning over displays and assaulting one customer who tried to intervene. The police released store surveillance video and later announced the arrest of a 19-year-old, saying he was one of three who hit the customer and took his cellphone.
“Nothing justifies that,” Mr. Kelly said. He said at a City Council hearing on Tuesday that the violence had been caused by a disorderly group that broke away from the vigil and did not constitute a riot, as some had termed it.
“That belittles it,” City Councilman Jumaane D. Williams said later, referring to the community anger after the police shooting. “So now we’re going to wait for something worse, for something that meets the true definition of a riot?”
Patrick McGeehan, Wendy Ruderman and Tim Stelloh contributed reporting.
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Kimani Gray, 16-Year-Old Killed By NYPD In Brooklyn, Was Hit By Seven Bullets; Shot Three Times In Back
By Bryan Graham — Wednesday, March 13th, 2013; 4:33 p.m. ‘DNAinfo.Com News’ / Manhattan
(Edited for ballistics)
NEW YORK — Three of the seven NYPD bullets that killed a 16-year-old boy over the weekend entered through his back, an autopsy found, according to the city's medical examiner.
Kimani Gray was standing with a group of friends after a party on East 52nd Street in East Flatbush Saturday when he allegedly pointed a .38-caliber Rohm's Industry revolver at two plainclothes officers. Police opened fire, striking him seven times, according to autopsy reports.
Witnesses and relatives disputed police reports that Gray was armed, including Tishana King, who told the Daily News that he had his hands out when he was shot.
The city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner found that Gray was hit in the back of his left shoulder and the back of his left thigh and the side of his right thigh, the paper said. Gray was also shot twice in the front of his right thigh, and once on his left side near the rib cage. Another shot hit him in the left lower arm, they said.
It was unclear the order in which the bullets struck Gray's body.
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Brooklyn Teen Hit by Seven Police Bullets
By Pervaiz Shallwani— Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The Wall Street Journal’ / New York, NY
(Edited for ballistics)
An autopsy on the 16-year-old boy killed by New York City police this week found he was hit by seven bullets, including three in the back side of his body, authorities said Wednesday.
Authorities have said two plainclothes police officers fired 11 shots at Gray after he allegedly pointed a revolver at them. Family and friends of the teenager have disputed that he had a gun.
Investigators determined Gray was struck once in the back of his left shoulder, once in back of each thigh, twice in the front right thigh, once in the left rib cage and once in the left forearm. A spokeswoman for the city’s chief medical examiner said the coroner was still investigating which of the bullets killed the teenager.
The sequence of the bullets could help to explain which direction he was facing when he was struck. “It’s hard to know which is the first one,” said Maria Haberfeld, a professor at John Jay College who studies police training and use of force. “When you hit someone the first time, they don’t stand and wait for the next one.”
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Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The New York Daily News’ Editorial:
Explanation of rampage after vigil for slain teen is hard to swallow
Shooting of armed youth is unconvincing as instance of police misconduct
The marauding and vandalism that followed a vigil for a Brooklyn 16-year-old killed by police has been described as an understandable expression of outrage about NYPD treatment of minority communities.
City Councilman Jumaane Williams, the leading voice in this chorus, confronted Police Commissioner Ray Kelly at a Council hearing, saying:
“It is about years of not being heard. Dr. King, a peaceful protester, said riots are the language of the unheard. So please, don’t belittle what happened based on one shooting.”
Williams did not condone the conduct of more than 100 young people who engaged in what he called “a riot.” But his emphasis on tracing its origin to anger at allegedly longstanding police abuse was wrongheaded and counterproductive.
The sequence of events is most revealing.
Two plainclothes cops, one a sergeant, one a police officer, pulled up near of group of teenagers at 11:30 p.m. Saturday. One member of the group, 16-year-old Kimani Gray, spotted the cops and began to walk away while adjusting his waistband.
The officers ordered Gray to stop, apparently believing he might be armed. Had events not escalated, the cops would likely have frisked Gray and found he was carrying a .38-caliber handgun.
But, according to stop-and-frisk opponents, the cops would have been guilty of violating Gray’s rights because, in similar cases, courts have ruled that police did not have sufficient grounds to search teenagers.
Here, that misguided outcome would have been a plus. The NYPD says Gray drew the weapon, prompting the cops to open fire, killing him. A woman who says she witnessed the shooting told the Daily News that Gray was empty-handed.
Prosecutors will no doubt empanel a grand jury in an effort to determine the critical question of whether or not Gray pointed the weapon. But no one has disputed that he was carrying a gun.
And that, in the first instance, is the fact that Williams and other leaders should have condemned as community residents organized vigils in memory of Gray and protest of the shooting.
They also should have spoken out against Gray’s apparent membership in the Bloods gang, a status seemingly verified by his appearance in two YouTube videos. Preventing the growth of a gang culture like the one that has become a murderous scourge in Chicago should be high on all minds.
It was after one vigil that a group stormed a pharmacy and assaulted a customer after trashing the place, all captured on a security video.
Williams and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, a mayoral contender who went to the scene of the turmoil, are among those who criticize the NYPD’s program of stopping, questioning and sometimes frisking individuals on suspicion of criminality. They discount the program’s effectiveness as a crimefighting tool and contend that cops have been overbearing.
The points are easily debated. What’s beyond question is that holding a gun-packing teen out as an example of police victimization is needlessly inflammatory and teaches all the wrong lessons.
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Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The New York Post’ Editorial:
Flashback from Flatbush
Joe Lhota is warning against a backslide to the bad old days of 20 years ago, when the city was wracked with crime, chaos and other woes. The GOP mayoral hopeful fears younger folks might not remember that ugly period — to their peril.
Alas, a long memory isn’t needed: This week, the city got a fresh taste of those terrible times. Hoodlums went on a rampage in East Flatbush, looting, trashing stores — and reviving fears of erstwhile lawlessness.
Shopkeepers shut down early Tuesday for fear of violence, as a Post photo of Church Avenue vividly showed. Police were out in force last night and made a number of arrests.
“This is terrifying,” said a woman whose family closed K&S Fruit. Another shopkeeper who quit early cited tens of thousands of dollars in damages from Monday night’s mayhem.
The incident that sparked the turmoil was also reminiscent of pre-Giuliani-Bloomberg days: Cops fatally shot a 16-year-old black youth, Kimani Gray — a Bloods gang member with a notable rap sheet. Police say they opened fire when Gray pointed a .38-caliber revolver at them.
It’s precisely what Lhota’s been warning about: “Many of you don’t look old enough to remember what the city was like 20 years ago,” he told a young crowd last weekend. The drop in crime and the improvements in the quality of life since then “have been nothing short of spectacular.”
Indeed, Rudy Giuliani became mayor in 1994 after one of the worst riots in the city in years: Crown Heights. Murders peaked in 1990, at 2,245. Since then, New York’s become calmer — and last year’s 419 killings set a modern-era low for the city.
The changes were no accident, and in the wrong hands, Lhota says, the city may well see a spike in violence: Anyone who thinks the gains are “permanent,” he says, “isn’t being serious.”
The sad irony is that it won’t be Manhattan’s white liberals who will suffer most if crime surges anew. As the looting in East Flatbush should remind us, it will be poor and minority neighborhoods that take the brunt of it, even as their “champions” — e.g., City Councilmen Ydanis Rodriguez and Jumaane Williams, who oppose police stops — push to handcuff cops.
Folks too young to have experienced how dangerous and unlivable crime once made New York should hope they never do.
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NYPD Stop, Question & Frisk
NYPD Stop-And-Frisk Lawsuit Starts 'Trial Of The Century,' Lawyer Says
By Matt Sledge — Wednesday, March 13th, 2013; 6:45 p.m. ‘The Huffington Post’ / New York, NY
NEW YORK -- The lawyers suing the New York Police Department over its stop-and-frisk policy said the federal case's March 18 court date will kick off the "trial of the century" over what they allege is a racially discriminatory policy.
Noting that blacks and Latinos were 87 percent of those stopped in 2011 and 2012, though they made up only 53 percent of the city's population, Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, rolled out the legal strategy on Wednesday. His group brought the lawsuit on behalf of anyone who has been illegally stopped by police in New York in violation of the Fourth and 14th Amendments.
"They would rather fight a lawsuit than switch to a constitutional form of policing," Warren said of the NYPD. "They would rather make this the trial of the century than be part of the solution of the century. So we are putting the NYPD on trial."
The Police Department has steadfastly defended its stop-and-frisk policy as an essential crime-fighting tool that helps curb gun violence. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said during a New York City Council hearing on Tuesday that stop-and-frisk is "part of the normal function of police officers."
Pointing to the city's declining crime rates -- and declining civilian complaints about police -- Kelly said, "Something is going right here, and I would respectfully suggest that we ought to continue to do the things we are doing to keep the city safe."
But the department has apparently modified how often it uses the tactic, in which officers stop, question and frisk people out on the street -- in theory only after the officers suspect specific wrongdoing. The NYPD stopped 533,042 people in 2012, a 22 percent drop compared to 2011.
The Center for Constitutional Rights contends that the NYPD's practices disproportionately affect people of color, even allowing for higher crime rates in black and Latino neighborhoods. It hopes to force the NYPD to curb -- though not end -- its use of the practice following community consultation.
The judge in the federal case, Floyd v. City of New York, is the same one who briefly halted a component of stop-and-frisk that targets Bronx buildings in a separate lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin's ultimate decision on stop-and-frisk will apply to both cases.
David Ourlicht, a 25-year-old New Yorker who is one of the named plaintiffs in the Center for Constitutional Rights case, said he hopes that it will mean he's never stopped again. He recounted an incident in which nine officers appeared out of the blue and pulled guns on him as he kept a friend company during a smoke break in Harlem.
"These things are all too familiar to people of color in the city. It's an issue that I've been dealing with since I was 15, and it hurts," Ourlicht said. "When I have kids, I don't want them to have to feel that."
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Stop and Frisk Defended by New York City's Police Commissioner
Raymond Kelly said that the practice of stopping and searching residents was valuable.
By Jonathan P. Hicks — Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 ‘BET (Black Entertainment Television) News’ / Washington, DC
New York City’s police commissioner offered a defense of his department’s controversial stop-and-frisk practice, saying that it was critical to maintaining law and order in America’s largest city.
Raymond W. Kelly, New York City’s top police official, spoke at a hearing of the City Council Tuesday and said that the number of people who are stopped in the city had declined and that the practice was an essential tool in the police department’s ability to fight crime.
“Let me say this: New York is by far the safest big city in America,” Kelly said to the council committee. Then, in a reference to the police department’s stop-and-frisk practices and declining murder rate, he said: “What we are doing here are tactics and strategies that are working. Something is going right here.”
That echoed the views of New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. And it drew sharp responses from several African-American and Latino members of the City Council who have criticized the police initiative as little more than sanctioned racial profiling.
“It was disrespectful,” said Jumaane D. Williams, a Brooklyn Democrat, who has been a staunch critic of stop-and-frisk, in an interview with BET.com.
“The continued defense of this program by the commissioner and the doubling and tripling down of it by the mayor, is fanning the flames in many communities like mine,” Williams said. “It’s not only frustrating. It’s dangerous.”
At the heart of stop-and-frisk is the practice of stopping and searching people whom the police consider to be suspicious. In 2011, that led to nearly 700,000 people being stopped by police. The practice has been criticized because the vast majority of those detained are Black and Latino and that in more than 85 percent of the cases, the stops result in no discovery of wrongdoing.
Civil rights groups and elected officials have harshly criticized the policy. Last year, a federal judge said many of the stops were unconstitutional because they did not meet the requirements for searches.
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52 Pct. P.O. Damian McIntosh Fined 30 Days, Transferred to 47 Precinct
Bronx cop docked vacation time for undervaluing stolen iPad
Officer Damian McIntosh lost 30 vacation days for assigning a $325 value to a stolen iPad that could have been worth as much as 829. The amount is below the felony level and could have long-ranging implications on how officers report theft values in the future.
By Rocco Parascandola — Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The New York Daily News’
COMMENT: Much more to this than reported in the Daily News. (Read between the lines.) - Mike
A Bronx cop has been docked vacation time for undervaluing a stolen iPad in a police report — a case that could have vast ramifications for city crime stats, the Daily News has learned.
The News first reported in 2011 that Officer Damian McIntosh, then assigned to the 52nd Precinct, had been slapped with administrative charges for assigning a $325 value to an iPad stolen from a man’s car.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly last month made the charge official, docking McIntosh 30 vacation days, the Daily News has learned. The cop now works at the 47th Precinct.
Police said the iPad should have been valued at between $499 and $829 — and by undervaluing the Apple device, McIntosh kept the value of all the stolen items in the case below the felony level of $1,000.
The decision to punish McIntosh has long-range implications because officers are typically told to downgrade the value of stolen items to keep felony numbers low, said his lawyer, Eric Sanders.
“I don’t know how you can blame them for carrying out the orders you gave them — come up with an estimate,” Sanders said.
“They’re police officers, not product specialists or property specialists.”
The NYPD had no comment.
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Thought Crimes / Fired 26 Pct. P.O. Gilberto Valle
Defense in Cannibal Case Faces Next Steps
By BENJAMIN WEISER — Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The New York Times’
During closing arguments in the trial of Gilberto Valle, the former New York police officer convicted of planning to kidnap, kill and eat women, the defense objected loudly when a prosecutor cited an example of potential terrorists wanting to hijack a plane.
The prosecutor, Randall W. Jackson, asked jurors to imagine that they were on an airplane and heard two passengers say that they wanted to “rush the cockpit and take the plane down,” only to learn later that the passengers had been engaging in fantasy discussions about such an act.
“Would the fact that they had been engaging in those fantasy discussions make it any less chilling for you?” Mr. Jackson asked, answering his own question with a “No.”
The defense moved for a mistrial, arguing that Mr. Jackson had been improperly preying on jurors’ fears by alluding to the Sept. 11 hijackings; and that he was suggesting more broadly that even if jurors did not believe Mr. Valle was guilty, they should convict him because he might be dangerous in the future.
The judge denied the motion, but the government’s arguments seem likely to be part of Mr. Valle’s efforts to have his conviction overturned.
“We think what must have happened,” Julia L. Gatto, Mr. Valle’s lead lawyer, said Wednesday, “is the jury was swayed by emotion and fear and didn’t follow the law.”
In the wake of the trial, in which Mr. Valle, 28, was convicted of kidnapping conspiracy, which carries a maximum life sentence, and a lesser charge, his lawyers have said they intend to vigorously pursue his post-conviction options.
“We have a real appeal here, grounded in the law,” Ms. Gatto said after the verdict Tuesday.
Although Ms. Gatto, a federal public defender, and her legal team declined to detail their strategy, several avenues seem likely to be pursued.
A central argument is likely to focus on the sufficiency of evidence against Mr. Valle. Before trial, the defense indicated it would call Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who would say Mr. Valle suffered from a mental condition and would support the defense’s fantasy strategy.
The defense’s decision not to have Mr. Valle or Dr. Dietz testify suggests the lawyers felt the government had not met its burden of proof, and there was no need to introduce psychological issues or subject Mr. Valle to a difficult cross-examination.
“We don’t regret that decision,” Robert M. Baum, another of Mr. Valle’s lawyers, said. “We felt it was the right decision based on the evidence.
“We didn’t think the government had made out their case; why present evidence to allow them to score points with the jury?”
Part of Mr. Jackson’s rebuttal summation seemed intended to address a point that the defense had made during the cross-examination of a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who had reviewed thousands of Mr. Valle’s online messages. The agent concluded that Mr. Valle had been planning real crimes with three people and was engaged in fantasy storytelling with 21 others.
Ms. Gatto, in her summation, cited similarities in the messages in both groups — barefoot women who were going to be taken from their homes; mentions of rope, stun guns, chains and pulley systems to subdue victims — in arguing that the agent was mistaken, and that the chats that he saw as real crimes had also been fantasy.
But Mr. Jackson, in his rebuttal, reversed the argument, suggesting that it was not surprising that people plotting actual crimes, like Mr. Valle, also engaged in fantasy role play.
Mr. Valle, for example, had been accused of conducting Google searches for phrases like “how to abduct a girl” and “how to chloroform a girl.”
In his hijacking hypothetical, Mr. Jackson asked how jurors would feel if they learned that the people on the plane were found to have researched chemicals that could be smuggled onto the aircraft or the schematics of specific planes.
In seeking a mistrial, another defense lawyer, Edward S. Zas, argued that Mr. Jackson’s hijacking example was “highly improper” and “elicited fear from the jurors” about what Mr. Valle might do in the future.
“I don’t think that anyone in this room in the jury missed what was an allusion to the 9/11 hijackers blowing up airplanes and the horrors that that invoked,” Mr. Zas argued.
Mr. Jackson disagreed, saying that he had not mentioned Sept. 11, and that the example was no more “explosive” than the allegations in the Valle case.
Judge Paul G. Gardephe said that he also had drawn no connection to Sept. 11 and that Mr. Jackson was merely trying to make the point that “what might start out as fantasy can lead to reality.”
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Mother of Cannibal Cop says his wife lied on the stand and that jury 'lacked common sense'
Elizabeth Valle says her son Gilberto's wife, Kathleen Mangan-Valle, 'perjured herself' while testifying against her husband, who was found guilty of found guilty of conspiring to kidnap, cook and eat women. Mangan-Valle sparked the probe that discovered her husband's photos of tortured women on his laptop and turned it over to the FBI.
By Joanna Molloy AND Corky Siemaszko — Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The New York Daily News’
The Cannibal Cop’s mom took a big bite out of her daughter-in-law Wednesday.
The mother of former NYPD Officer Gilberto Valle spoke out a day after her 28-year-old son was convicted of conspiring to kidnap, kill, cook and eat several women.
“Kathleen perjured herself,” Elizabeth Valle told the Daily News. “She sat on the stand like the hysterical little wife, and then with the next question there was a big change of emotion and she would be all clear and concise. Then it was back to ‘poor me, poor me’ again.”
Kathleen Mangan-Valle sparked the probe that ensnared her husband after she discovered photos of tortured women on his laptop — and turned it over to the FBI in Nevada. She is now living in Reno with the couple’s year-old daughter Josephine.
“I have not seen my baby girl since Kathleen took her away to Reno,” the furious grandmother said. “But she will have to look at that little girl every day and know what she did to my son, to our whole family. And she will see him, because that baby is my son. She looks just like him.”
Elizabeth Valle insisted throughout the trial that she had “no idea” why her son was turned on by images and acts that would make most people sick.
The Cannibal Cop’s mom took a big bite out of her daughter-in-law Wednesday.
The mother of former NYPD Officer Gilberto Valle spoke out a day after her 28-year-old son was convicted of conspiring to kidnap, kill, cook and eat several women.
“Kathleen perjured herself,” Elizabeth Valle told the Daily News. “She sat on the stand like the hysterical little wife, and then with the next question there was a big change of emotion and she would be all clear and concise. Then it was back to ‘poor me, poor me’ again.”
Kathleen Mangan-Valle sparked the probe that ensnared her husband after she discovered photos of tortured women on his laptop — and turned it over to the FBI in Nevada. She is now living in Reno with the couple’s year-old daughter Josephine.
“I have not seen my baby girl since Kathleen took her away to Reno,” the furious grandmother said. “But she will have to look at that little girl every day and know what she did to my son, to our whole family. And she will see him, because that baby is my son. She looks just like him.”
Elizabeth Valle insisted throughout the trial that she had “no idea” why her son was turned on by images and acts that would make most people sick.
“I love my son,” she said Wednesday. “He never, ever displayed any violence. Not when he was a boy, not when he was a teenager. He never got into fights. ”
She said she was still “in disbelief” that her son could spend the rest of his life in jail for something he only talked about doing.
“The jury lacked common sense,” she said. “They based their decision on six days of Internet chat. ”
Prosecutors contend Valle, who lived in Queens, was “a sexual sadist” who was seeking advice on how best to slake his sick obsession. He even conspired with a New Jersey man to kidnap a woman so they could cook and eat her.
Valle’s lawyers maintained he was doing “fantasy role play” with other “death fetishists” that he had met online.
The NYPD immediately fired Valle after his conviction. He has vowed to appeal.
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Demographics Unit Muslim Mapping / NYPD Counterterrorism and Intel
The Frightening Effects of the NYPD's 'Mapping Muslims' Program
By Henry Grabar — Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 ‘The Atlantic Cities’ / Washington, DC
Between 2001 and 2011, in an expansive surveillance operation of Muslims in the New York region, the NYPD sent informants and undercover agents into cafes, mosques, restaurants, bookstores, clothing stores, salons and other businesses and institutions, assembling a collection of maps and guides whose level of mind-numbing detail — Are there newspapers available? Are antiques sold? Is the food Halal? — approaches that of a Lonely Planet guide to Islamic New York.
With the exception of widespread public outrage when the Associated Press exposed the program in a Pulitzer-winning investigation last year, the "human mapping program" of the NYPD Demographics Unit produced nothing: not one uncovered terrorism plot, not even a criminal lead.
In the city's many Muslim communities, however, the NYPD has left a trail of mistrust and fear — fear of the police, yes, but also fear of political activism, freedom of speech, public religious observance and other basic constitutional rights. According to a report [PDF] released on Monday by CUNY-CLEAR, a law enforcement watchdog group, the surveillance program had touched nearly every aspect of public life for New York City Muslims.
"Surveillance sounds secret," says Diala Shamas, a Liman Fellow at CUNY and a co-author of "Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and its Impact on American Muslims," a joint product of CUNY-CLEAR, the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition, and the Asian American Legal Defense Fund, "but you'll always have some kind of trickle down into the communities. It's important to recognize that surveillance is strongly felt."
After interviewing dozens of students, businesspeople, religious leaders, and other community figures — as well as informants and police officials — the researchers found that few people were surprised when the extent of the NYPD program was revealed. For Muslims in New York City, it had become a fact of life.
One of the program's more damaging consequences, the report finds, was its effect on freedom of speech. Public talk of politics and foreign affairs, from the mosque to the barber shop (especially discussion involving the tactics of the city's police department) has now long been and is still seen as an invitation for scrutiny. A father urged his son not to speak with the Associated Press as the investigation was breaking, for fear of backlash. A cafe owner in Bay Ridge stopped tuning his television to Al-Jazeera, in an effort to avoid NYPD scrutiny. (The tactic was duly noted in an NYPD report on Egyptian cafes [PDF].)
The testimony underscores the extent to which young Muslims live in a different world from their friends. Muslim students think twice before using common avenues of expression: "I don't talk about the NYPD on Facebook," says one. Involvement in a Muslim Student Association at a local college was perceived as a virtual guarantee of surveillance, and proved to be so — the NYPD monitored over 30 Muslim student groups in the city alone, and kept watch on student groups as far away as Penn, Syracuse, and Yale. It wasn't just political activism on campus that drew the department's attention — a trip to play paintball became, in the eyes of the NYPD, "a militant paintball trip."
Perhaps the most pervasive effect of the ten-year surveillance program, whose details still remain largely unknown, was to sow suspicion in Muslim communities not only of the police but of neighbors. "You look at your closest friends," said a local Sunday school teacher, "and ask: are they informants?"
The police department's focus on piety as an indicator of a potential terrorist threat — one undercover officer went on a whitewater rafting trip with Muslim students and recorded how many times they prayed each day — had changed the practice of faith in the community. "Attendance at mosque," the authors write, "has become tantamount to placing oneself on law enforcement's radar."
The presence of informants and spies at local mosques — "hot spots," per the NYPD — was well-known, and splintered community discussions into smaller, private groups. (The presence of undercover agents in mosques has elsewhere led to some unbelievable stories.) "People come, pray, and leave," said one imam. Certain ways of dressing had also become stigmatized. From parents to children, brothers to sisters, the warning was the same: if you dress Muslim, you are inviting police scrutiny.
The overriding theme that emerged across interviews, however, was an "entrenched, deep mistrust" of the NYPD, a divide that could, if other confrontations between minority groups and the police department are any guide, take a generation to repair.
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Mapping: Surveillance and its impact on American Muslims
The fear of surveillance suppresses religious practice, speech and political expression in America, write authors.
By Diala Shamas and Nermeen Arastu — Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘Aljazeera News’ / Doha, Qatar
In 2011, students in the Muslim Students' Association (MSA) at Hunter College put up a sign in their club room, reading: "Please Refrain from Political Convos in the MSA". The sole justification provided? An arrow pointing to a recent news article detailing the NYPD's vast, secret surveillance programme that spied on American Muslims.
A year and a half later, the NYPD maintains its disturbing defense: that police surveillance of American Muslims, though baseless, is harmless, and that those who have nothing to hide should have nothing to fear.
However, comprehensive interviews we conducted with American Muslims in New York relayed chilling firsthand accounts of how fear of surveillance suppressed religious practice, speech, political expression, and threatened to dissolve the very fabric of entire community.
For over a decade, the NYPD has dispatched undercover officers and informants into mosques, neighborhoods, businesses and college campuses across the New York City area and beyond, recording the minutia of American Muslim life. Officers reportedly collected information on how many times Muslim students prayed during their college whitewater rafting trip, which restaurants aired Al Jazeera television programming, what people chatted about after praying together - even the type of pizza a Muslim-owned pizzeria sold.
All that digging up gave them literally nothing. In August 2012, Thomas P Galati, chief of the Intelligence Division, admitted under oath that during his six-year tenure, the surveillance programme had not yielded a single criminal lead. But the lack of leads did not mean the surveillance had no impact. Across New York City, American Muslims describe devastating consequences to their day-to-day lives.
And the stories abound.
After one young man found out he unknowingly befriended an NYPD undercover officer at his mosque, he broke off all ties with anyone from that mosque and its larger community. Another young woman from Queens mused: "You look at your closest friends and ask: are they informants?"
A student at a City of University of New York campus was offered money and the promise of immigration benefits by two NYPD officers in exchange for working as an informant and perusing his friends' Facebook pages. While he declined, he realized that his classmates might also have likely faced similar offers and might have not turned them down. And so now he assumes that informants are everywhere: "We have a huge student body. It's impossible to know anyone."
The result? Silence.
An imam in Brooklyn told us that his congregants urged him not to venture into discussions of social justice or promote call-outs for Trayvon Martin protests. "Let's just talk about pilgrimage." One hookah bar owner banned screening Al Jazeera news network. A young community organizer, who comes from a family of activists, described how his parents discouraged him from speaking out about surveillance. "This was the first time in my own family where safety trumped... the right thing to do." Ironically, or perhaps, effectively, surveillance has muted dissent.
Muslim youth and students were among the most hard-hit. Rather than exploring their opinions and engaging with their peers, the way other college students do, they kept their head down and "lay low". Several reported switching out of "political science" majors, in favor of "conventional" careers. One professor from Brooklyn College felt that "Muslim students are getting an inferior education because of this [surveillance], and that's not fair."
And kids are no longer kids. "I think twice before every time I put something on Facebook. I have to make sure it doesn't give the wrong idea to law enforcement," said a young woman from Queens. One student from Brooklyn College confessed, rather timidly, that he has stopped using the Arabic term for "bombshell" to talk about an attractive girl with his friends. He thought that would trigger all sorts of surveillance.
Many others were extremely cautious and told us their stories softly, and anonymously, behind closed doors. They were scared to simply tell their story, or to even mention the word "surveillance". One young woman surmised, "Even if we know we have rights, we know they don't apply equally to everyone."
Unsurprisingly, many interviewees felt alienated from law enforcement. This worsened as New Yorkers learned that the NYPD was monitoring even its closest American Muslim partners, including imams who frequently appeared at the Mayor's side.
As hate crimes against Muslims have made several headlines recently, the NYPD should implement policies to protect and support this large and diverse population of New York. Instead, by engaging in profiling practices, like surveillance and stop and frisk, the NYPD continues to stigmatize and alienate entire segments of New York's population.
New York City is known for the diversity of its expressive, political, religious and communal life. American Muslims, who account for close to 10 percent of New Yorkers, are an inalienable part of the city's makeup. The NYPD's secret spying programme and the city officials who defend seem blind to that reality.
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Former ‘First Deputy Police Commissioner’ John Timoney's Nephew
Downtown's First Precinct Welcomes New Top Cop
By Irene Plagianos — Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 ‘DNAinfo.Com News’ / Manhattan
LOWER MANHATTAN — Downtown's First Precinct has a new top cop.
Capt. Brendan Timoney, most recently the executive officer for the East Village's Ninth Precinct, has taken the helm as commanding officer of the First Precinct, which covers a square mile that includes lower Manhattan, SoHo and Hudson Square.
"I'm very excited to be joining the precinct," said Timoney, 37. "I'm looking forward to working with the community to keep this neighborhood safe."
Timoney, who's been with the NYPD for 15 years, also has policing in his blood — he's the nephew of the NYPD's former First Deputy Commissioner John Timoney.
He takes over for Deputy Inspector Edward Winski, 46, who had served as commanding officer since 2010.
Winski, whose busy tenure Downtown included the tense demonstrations of Occupy Wall Street, was promoted from captain to deputy inspector while working as commanding officer.
The 46-year-old has now taken over the commanding officer spot at the Midtown South precinct. It's familiar territory for Winski, a 20-year veteran of the NYPD, as he served as executive officer of Midtown South before heading Downtown.
Timoney's new position officially started Tuesday, the precinct confirmed.
"Captain Timoney will continue to foster the solid relationships in the 1st Precinct as he has done in his previous command," the precinct's community council said in a statement.
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New York State (Fatal MVA / Police Officer Allegedly DWI)
NY cop, son of PD chief, charged in fatal crash
By Unnamed Author(s) (The Associated Press) — Thursday, March 14th, 2013; 11:45 a.m.
EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y. — Authorities say the police officer son of an upstate New York police chief has been charged with driving while intoxicated after a crash that killed his passenger.
Police in Rensselaer County tell local media outlets that 22-year-old Mark Fusco was driving a Volkswagen sedan that slammed into a tree around 5 a.m. Wednesday in the town of East Greenbush, across the Hudson River from Albany.
Fusco is a police officer in the neighboring city of Rensselaer, where his father, Rick Fusco, is chief of police.
Police say 22-year-old Sean Murphy of Slingerlands was thrown from the car and pronounced dead at the scene.
Mark Fusco was taken to Albany Medical Center Hospital. Information on his injuries hasn't been released.
Rensselaer police officials say the chief isn't commenting on the crash.
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U.S.A.
Congressional Committees Make Some Gun-Rights Provisions Permanent
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER — Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The New York Times’
WASHINGTON — With gun safety measures headed to the Senate floor, members of the House and Senate appropriations committees have quietly made permanent four formerly temporary gun-rights provisions largely favored by Republicans. Those provisions are part of a spending bill that would keep the government running through Sept. 30.
The provisions, which have been renewed separately at various points, would prohibit the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from requiring gun dealers to conduct annual inventories to ensure that they have not lost guns or had them stolen, and would retain a broad definition of “antique” guns that can be imported into the United States outside of normal regulations.
Another amendment would prevent the A.T.F. from refusing to renew a dealer’s license for lack of business; many licensed dealers who are not actively engaged in selling firearms can now obtain a license to sell guns and often fly under the radar of the agency and other law enforcement officials, which gun control advocates argue leads to a freer flow of illegal guns.
A final measure would require the bureau to attach a disclaimer to data about guns to indicate that it “cannot be used to draw broad conclusions about firearms-related crimes.”
Officials from the A.T.F. have long complained that quirky laws passed by Congress hamstring their ability to curb gun crimes. For example, under federal laws the bureau is prohibited from creating a federal registry of gun transactions, making it hard to track illegal guns.
Many of the provisions have been regularly added to appropriations bills since 2004. But Senate Democrats on the committee — pushed by Republicans and some Democrats who have made gun rights a signature issue — reluctantly agreed to make them permanent to stave off what they saw as an even more far-reaching House version of the bill.
The House offering contained a new rider that would prevent the A.T.F. from requiring gun dealers on the Southwest border to notify the agency when selling two or more long guns — semiautomatic rifles, higher than .22 caliber with detachable magazines — to the same buyer within five days. These firearms are the preferred weapons of Mexican drug cartels, Senate aides said.
“The Second Amendment is a fundamental right guaranteed by our Constitution,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, in a statement about the provisions. “And we should protect it wherever we can.”
As part of his agenda to regulate some firearms, President Obama recently signed an executive order lifting the ban on gun research. Other restrictions sought by the White House after the Newtown, Conn., shooting in December must go through Congress.
On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the renewal of an assault weapons ban and restrictions on magazine sizes. This week, the panel passed a measure that would expand the use of background checks to private gun sales, and another to renew a grant program to help schools improve security. The committee also approved a measure last week that would make the already illegal practice of buying a gun for someone else who is legally barred from having one — known as a straw purchase — a felony and to increase penalties for the crime.
The debate in the Judiciary Committee will end Thursday, moving consideration of gun legislation to the Senate floor and perhaps the House, where members have indicated they might consider any legislation that the Senate passes.
But any legislation that comes to the Senate floor could be undermined by riders on appropriations bills like the one being debated on the floor now, which would keep the government running through the end of September. The Senate is trying to pass a short-term measure to prevent the government from shutting down, as members from both parties and chambers go about the business of creating actual budgets. For the last two years, Republicans and Democrats have fought over these short-term spending agreements, over the amount in them and the policy riders that Republicans often attach to them as part of the deal.
These riders are a boon to Senate Republicans, particularly those who are strong advocates of Second Amendment rights, and a bit of an embarrassment to some Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee, who are trying to avoid policy riders and also not handcuff their colleagues who are active in creating new gun legislation.
Even though the gun-rights provisions are long standing, making them permanent is “counterproductive,” said Garen J. Wintemute, the director of the violence prevention research program at the University of California, Davis. “Regular inventories help identify retailers who are not adequately protecting their firearms from loss or theft and, more important, those who are letting firearms go out the back door and declaring them lost or stolen,” he said.
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NRA money helped reshape gun law
By Peter Finn — Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The Washington Post’ / Washington, DC
In 1977 at a Denver hotel, Don Kates paced a conference room lecturing a small group of young scholars about the Second Amendment and tossing out ideas for law review articles. Back then, it was a pretty weird activity in pursuit of a wacky notion: that the Constitution confers an individual right to possess a firearm.
“This idea for a very long time was just laughed at,” said Nelson Lund, the Patrick Henry professor of constitutional law and the Second Amendment at George Mason University, a chair endowed by the National Rifle Association. “A lot of people thought it was preposterous and just propaganda from gun nuts.”
More than 35 years later, no one is laughing. In 2008, the Supreme Court endorsed for the first time an individual’s right to own a gun in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller. The 5 to 4 decision rendered ineffective some of the District’s strict gun-control laws. And Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion echoed the work of Kates and his ideological comrades, who had pressed the argument that the Second Amendment articulates an individual right to keep and bear arms.
As the Obama administration pushes for gun-control legislation, it will have to contend with the changed legal understanding of the Second Amendment that culminated in Heller. That transformation was brought about in large part by a small band of lawyers and scholars backed by the NRA.
For more than three decades, the NRA has sponsored legal seminars, funded legal research and encouraged law review articles that advocate an individual’s right to possess guns, according to the organization’s reports. The result has been a profound shift in legal thinking on the Second Amendment. And the issue of individual gun-possession rights, once almost entirely ignored, has moved into the center of constitutional debate and study.
For proponents of stricter gun control, the NRA’s encouragement of favorable legal scholarship has been a mark of its strategic, patient advocacy.
“I think this was one of the most successful attempts to change the law and to change a legal paradigm in history,” said Carl T. Bogus, a professor at Roger Williams University School of Law in Rhode Island and the editor of “The Second Amendment in Law and History,” a collection of essays that challenges the interpretation of the individual right. “They were thinking strategically. I don’t think the NRA funds scholarship out of academic interest. I think the NRA funds something because it has a political objective.”
The Second Amendment states: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Before the Heller decision, the Supreme Court and lower courts had interpreted the language as “preserving the authority of the states to maintain militias,” according to a Congressional Research Service analysis.
“It was a settled question, and the overwhelming consensus, bordering on unanimity, was that the Second Amendment granted a collective right” enjoyed by the states, not individuals, Bogus said. Under this interpretation, the Constitution provides no right for an individual to possess a firearm.
Lund agreed that there was a consensus but said it was “based on ignorance.”
Throughout most of American history, there was little academic interest in the Second Amendment. From 1912 to 1959, only 11 law journal articles were published on the subject, all of them endorsing the prevailing opinion that it “affects citizens only in connection with citizen service in a government-organized and -regulated militia,” according to an analysis by Robert J. Spitzer, a professor of political science at the State University of New York at Cortland and the author of “The Politics of Gun Control.”
The first articles advocating an individual right appeared in the 1960s, and scholarship endorsing that view took off in the late 1970s. From 1980 to 1989, as NRA support began to be felt, 38 articles on the Second Amendment were published in academic journals, 21 of which advocated an individual right. In the following decade, 87 articles appeared, and a clear majority — 58 to 29 — took an individual-rights position, Spitzer’s analysis showed.
To Kates, the explanation for the burgeoning scholarship is obvious. “Gun control became a matter of enormous political controversy, and this focused attention on the Second Amendment,” he said in an interview.
Kates, a Yale Law graduate who describes himself as a liberal, said he began carrying a gun when he spent the summer of 1963 as a civil rights worker in eastern North Carolina.
“I never believed the nonsense that was then current that the Second Amendment had to do with states’ rights,” he said. Alarmed by calls for stricter gun control and outright bans, Kates started the seminars in the late 1970s and ran them for more than a decade with support from various groups, including the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation, another gun rights organization.
Stephen P. Halbrook attended the Denver seminar in 1977 when he was an assistant professor of philosophy at Howard University and studying for a law degree at Georgetown. Three years later, he published his first article on the Second Amendment in the George Mason University Law Review. He went on to publish more than 20 law review articles and four books dealing with the Second Amendment, some with grants from the NRA, where he has served as an outside counsel.
Halbrook, who has a law office in Fairfax city, said the NRA started funding scholarly research. “I would think that’s important in the sense that scholars, unless you’re independently wealthy, you need to be paid for your time,” he said.
He and others noted that Bogus has received outside funding for symposia and publishing that excludes the individual-rights point of view. Bogus said he was transparent about his funding.
The NRA also began essay competitions for law students with prizes of up to $12,500, with the understanding that the winners would try to place their work in a law review.
Halbrook was one of a number of lawyers — including Kates; Dave Hardy, a legal consultant for the NRA; and David Caplan, a member of the NRA’s board of directors — who were at the forefront of this writing. They drew on their reading of colonial history, the founders’ statements and early American constitutional history to make their case for an individual right.
Hardy said most of this work was published in minor reviews, but the individual-rights argument got a big boost in 1989 when Sanford Levinson, a leading professor of constitutional law at the University of Texas at Austin, published “The Embarrassing Second Amendment” in the Yale Law Journal. He argued that the “legal consciousness of the elite bar” on the Second Amendment might be wrong. He also was sympathetic to the “insurrectionist theory” that citizens have a right to be armed so they can fight their government if it becomes tyrannical. Levinson singled out Kates’s work and cited Halbrook.
Other leading scholars followed, and advocates for the NRA’s position began to speak about a new “standard model.” In 1997, Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledged the growing mass of law review material when he wrote, “Marshaling an impressive array of historical evidence, a growing body of scholarly commentary indicates that the ‘right to keep and bear arms’ is, as the Amendment text suggests, a personal right.”
In 2003, the NRA marked the Second Amendment’s new stature as a subject of serious study when its foundation endowed Lund’s Patrick Henry chair at George Mason University with $1 million. The law school had established a reputation as a bastion of conservative legal thought.
“What they were looking for was a means of legitimating the fact that the Second Amendment had arrived as a legitimate subject of study in constitutional law,” said Daniel D. Polsby, the dean of the George Mason University School of Law.
For advocates of an individual’s right to bear arms, the Heller decision in 2008 was a vindication. In writing the majority opinion, Scalia said, “The second amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm, unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.”
He cited Kates and Halbrook.
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F.B.I.
Virginia, Maryland lawmakers spar over FBI move
Virginia officials seek to remove requirement for new headquarters
By John Fritze — Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The Baltimore Sun’ / Baltimore, MD
Lawmakers from Virginia pressed a House of Representatives panel Wednesday to forgo a requirement that a potential new FBI headquarters be located close to the Capital Beltway, a provision they said gives Maryland an unfair advantage as the two states compete for the lucrative development.
Maryland officials have been working for months to lure the FBI to Prince George's County if the agency leaves its 38-year-old headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, in downtown Washington. The state is competing for the roughly $1 billion development project and the 11,000 jobs associated with it.
But at a hearing of the House subcommittee on economic development and public buildings, lawmakers from Virginia and Washington, D.C., pushed back on a provision included in a Senate resolution that would require the building to be situated within 2.5 miles of Interstate 495 — a provision they said would give some Virginia counties a disadvantage.
"That would arbitrarily prevent sites" in Northern Virginia from competing for the project, said Rep. Frank R. Wolf, a Republican who represents the region.
The General Services Administration, which acts as the landlord for the federal government, is in the early stages of considering whether to build a new headquarters for the FBI. The GSA received 35 responses this month to a solicitation for interest in the project, but has not discussed details about them.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's current headquarters has been plagued with problems, including a crumbling facade that has threatened pedestrians with falling debris. The FBI has so outgrown its old building that about half of the agency's staff don't fit; they work in 21 satellite offices scattered around the region.
That forces the FBI to spend about $168 million annually for rent. Consolidating the buildings would save $44 million a year, said Kevin L. Perkins, the bureau's associate deputy director.
The GSA is seeking a 45- to 50-acre site that can accommodate 2.1 million square feet of office space and meet the FBI's unusual security requirements.
To move forward, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee must pass resolutions. The Senate measure, advanced by Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat, included language that gave preference to sites within two miles of a Metro station and 2.5 miles of the Capital Beltway. It passed in 2011.
Virginia lawmakers are objecting to the second requirement, arguing it could shut out sites in Loudoun and Prince William counties. A Greenbelt site supported by Prince George's County officials would meet the requirements, as would several other potential sites in Virginia.
"We hope that this committee, in drawing its criteria, will frankly be more flexible and more open than maybe the Senate was," said Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat.
A Cardin spokeswoman noted that the requirements in the Senate resolution match assumptions made by GSA in a 2011 feasibility study. "The location of the facility is assumed to be within 2 miles of a Metrorail station and 2.5 miles of the Capital Beltway," the document read.
But on Wednesday, the commissioner of the GSA's Public Buildings Service, Dorothy Robyn, said that language was included for the purposes of valuing property, not as a requirement. The language was also not included in the agency's recent solicitation for interest in the project.
Maryland Reps. Steny Hoyer and Donna Edwards, both Democrats, used the hearing to pitch Prince George's for the development, noting its proximity to the National Security Agency, the University of Maryland and downtown Washington.
Hoyer cited a report last fall from the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development that found 43 percent of FBI headquarters employees live in Maryland, compared with 17 percent in Washington and 33 percent in Virginia. The report did not survey actual FBI employees — a difficult task given security concerns with those workers — but rather extrapolated the figures from other federal agencies.
"FBI personnel and their families could benefit from lower daily transportation expenses, Prince George's County's vibrant neighborhoods, and an easier commute," Hoyer said, calling Maryland the "right choice for the new FBI headquarters."
Virginia officials, meanwhile, noted they are home to the Central Intelligence Agency as well as several prominent FBI annex facilities.
Washington is also vying for the project.
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Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland police under investigation by U.S. Justice Department
By Leila Atassi — Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The Cleveland Plain Dealer’ / Cleveland, OH
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The U.S. Justice Department this morning announced a civil-rights investigation into possible misconduct by Cleveland police.
The sweeping probe will examine the police department's policies and practices and will specifically explore whether officers routinely use excessive force, officials said at a news conference.
"The road ahead will be difficult," said U.S. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez. "This work is not easy, but this independent review is critical to ensuring and preserving trust between a police department and the community it serves."
(Read the full statement by Perez in the document viewer below)
In making the announcement, Perez appeared with U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, city police Chief Michael McGrath and city Safety Director Martin Flask.
Jackson said he welcomed the inquiry.
Such investigations typically take 12 to 18 months and often result in an agreement, or consent decree, that calls for a federal judge to oversee efforts by a department to reform its ways.
In January, a federal judge approved a consent decree governing New Orleans' police department. The decree resulted from a lengthy Justice Department probe that found a long list of police abuses, including the use of excessive force, unconstitutional stops and searches, and racial discrimination.
A Justice Department review of Cleveland police was requested by Jackson in December, following a controversial police chase in which a third of the city's on-duty police officers participated without seeking permission and which ended with a barrage of police gunfire that killed two people.
Last month, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine released the results of a state criminal investigation into the incident, calling that November night a "systemic failure" of the police department. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty is expected to present the case to a grand jury.
Meanwhile, a panel appointed by Police Chief Michael McGrath continues its review of the incident to determine whether the officers followed police pursuit and use of force policies.
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Florida
Bal Harbour police chief fired amid misspending claims
After 10 years as Bal Harbour’s police chief — and three months on paid suspension for alleged misspending — Thomas Hunker was fired Friday.
BY DANIEL CHANG — Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The Miami Herald’ / Miami, FL
Bal Harbour Police Chief Thomas Hunker, the village’s top cop for nearly 10 years, was fired Friday after a months-long suspension.
The dismissal stemmed from a lengthy U.S. Justice Department investigation and followed a series of Miami Herald reports about alleged misspending of millions of dollars received through a federal forfeiture program. The Justice Department also alleged that alleged Hunker abused his position for personal benefit.
In a memo to Hunker dated Friday, Jay Smith, acting village manager, said the chief’s termination was not based on the Justice Department’s allegations, “but instead, is the result of the Village’s desire to move its Police Department in another direction.’’
Hunker will receive a payout of about $115,350, plus six months of health insurance. He is in the last year of a contract that pays him a base salary of $155,600 a year, and provides him with an SUV, health insurance and a pension.
Hunker will collect a monthly pension benefit of $3,339.82, with an automatic escalator of 2 1/2 percent each year. As of December 2012, Hunker had received about $43,442 in retirement benefits deposited into a deferred savings account that he can only access after retirement.
Hunker already receives a pension from Miami Beach, where he was a police officer for 28 years.
Though he could not be reached for comment Friday, Hunker rebutted the Justice Department’s allegations of misconduct in a three-page letter written by his criminal defense attorney, Richard Sharpstein.
In the letter, Sharpstein denied specific accusations that the chief used his influence to get “a deal” on his wife’s Jeep, stating that Hunker paid $35,000 for the vehicle in 2009 and that he provided village officials with a copy of the purchase agreement. Sharpstein also wrote that Hunker never accepted gifts from individuals seeking to benefit from the chief’s influence, and that he never allowed an associate who was intoxicated to drive a marked police car on the beach.
Contradicting the Justice Department’s claim that Hunker’s officers never made a single arrest as part of their narcotics investigations, Sharpstein said Bal Harbour provided federal officials with statistics showing village police had made 200 arrests in 13 cities throughout the United States from 2009 through 2012.
Indeed, Smith’s termination memo acknowledged Hunker’s “many accomplishments’’ since becoming chief in April 2003, including improved training for officers, better equipment and facilities for the police department, charitable endeavors that benefited the community, and the “fine work” of the narcotics unit that brought millions in federal forfeiture funds to the village — and ultimately led to the chief’s downfall.
Hunker created the unit in 2003, and its detectives investigated money laundering and drug trafficking far outside the borders of Bal Harbour, a relatively crime-free, oceanside town of about 2,500 people.
Working together with the Glades County Sheriff’s Office deputies under a joint investigative group called the Tri-County Task Force, the narcotics unit brought Bal Harbour at least $7.3 million in three years, according to the Justice Department.
But federal investigators say village police misspent that money on unjustified overtime and lavish travel, and improper payments to confidential informants. The money also went to cover salaries and benefits for two undercover investigators working under contract in California and Florida’s west coast, and to purchase expensive toys: $100,000 for a police power boat; $225,000 for a sleek surveillance truck.
As a result of the questionable spending , Bal Harbour was suspended from the forfeiture program, and the feds demanded the village return more than $4 million.
The village has returned about $1.3 million, and attorneys are now negotiating a settlement for the remainder, said Dan Gelber, a former federal prosecutor who is representing Bal Harbour in talks with the Justice Department.
The village also has disbanded the narcotics unit, and on Thursday construction crews began to remove the trailer where the unit’s detectives planned investigations and counted cash seized from suspected drug dealers and money launderers.
Detectives with the narcotics unit earned tens of thousands in overtime — often from work conducted inside the trailer — during the past few years, sometimes doubling their pay.
Smith said it was only coincidence that Hunker’s firing and the narcotics trailer’s removal took place at about the same time.
Smith estimated the cost of removing the trailer is about $20,000.
Though Hunker’s firing marks the end of an era for Bal Harbour police, the department’s troubles are not over.
On Thursday, a Bal Harbour police officer, Ramon Fernandez, filed a whistleblower complaint against the village, alleging that Hunker coerced him and other officers into providing DNA samples by cheek swab as part of the chief’s quest to identify the author of an anonymous letter that alleged cheating had occurred on a 2011 sergeant’s promotional exam.
Fernandez alleges that his DNA was improperly taken from him, and that Hunker — who collected cheek swabs from every officer on the 30-member force —sent in only a few of the swabs for analysis, including Fernandez’s.
In the complaint, Fernandez also alleged that he had been unfairly targeted for disciplinary action by his superiors; that a fellow BHPD officer intimidated his wife at her workplace; and that other BHPD officers made false accusations against him.
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Colorado
Colorado lawmakers approve sweeping gun-control measures
By Keith Coffman (Reuters) — Wednesday, March 13th, 2013; 9:48pm EDT
DENVER | (Reuters) - Both chambers of the majority Democratic Colorado legislature approved a package of four gun-control measures on Wednesday, capping months of debate in a state that has experienced two of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.
The most controversial of the bills that are now headed to the desk of Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper is a ban on ammunition magazines with more than 15 rounds, which the governor said he will sign into law.
The passage of the bills could push Colorado to the forefront of a national gun control debate reignited by several mass shootings last year, including the December massacre of 20 children and six adults at a school in Newtown, Connecticut.
The sponsor of the Colorado magazine-limit bills, state House Representative Rhonda Fields, told fellow lawmakers in a floor debate on Wednesday the proposal was about "saving lives."
"These are weapons that should be used in a theater of war and not in our local theaters," said Fields, a Democrat whose district includes the suburban Denver movie theater where a gunman killed 12 people in a shooting rampage last July.
Colorado was also the site of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, where two teenagers shot dead a teacher and 12 other students before committing suicide.
Other bills included in the package of gun-control laws approved by Colorado lawmakers included a measure to make firearm buyers pay for their own background checks and a ban on online certification for concealed-carry permits, both of which Hickenlooper has said he supports.
Another measure would bar gun purchases by people convicted of domestic violence crimes. Hickenlooper had previously said he was undecided about that until he could see the final version.
One remaining gun-control measure to require background checks for all firearms transfers was sent to a conference committee on Wednesday, so that both chambers could hash out differences between the Senate and House versions.
The proposals that won final approval on Wednesday had received little Republican support.
Republican House minority leader Mark Waller issued a statement after the bills' passage, calling Democrats "out of touch" with their constituents.
"More than 200,000 Coloradans are out of work but Democrats are more concerned with passing legislation that will send hundreds of jobs out of our state without any increase in public safety to show for it," Waller said in a statement.
Waller was referring to Magpul, a Colorado-based manufacturer of ammunition magazines that has vowed to leave the state and take away its hundreds of jobs if the magazine-limits bill becomes law.
The Colorado legislature's action follows the passage in New York state in January of a sweeping gun-control law that bans assault weapons and magazines that hold more than seven rounds of ammunition, requires gun owners to register most guns with the states and requires universal background checks.
President Barack Obama has put forward a number of federal gun-control proposals in the wake of the Newtown killings.
On Tuesday, a divided U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee advanced to the full Senate a measure endorsed by Obama that would require criminal background checks for all gun buyers.
(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Eric Walsh)
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Immigration Enforcement / Illegal Aliens
Gov't acknowledges thousands released from jails
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL (The Associated Press) — Thursday, March 14th, 2013; 12:05 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration contradicted itself Thursday, acknowledging to Congress that it had, in fact, released more than 2,000 illegal immigrants from immigration jails due to budget constraints during three weeks in February. Four deemed especially dangerous have been placed back in jail.
The administration had claimed only a "few hundred immigrants" were released for budgetary reasons, challenging as inaccurate an Associated Press report that 2,000 immigrants had been released and that 3,000 more would be released this month.
However, the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, John Morton, testified Thursday that his agency released 2,228 illegal immigrants for what he called "solely budgetary reasons."
Morton and other agency officials spoke during a hearing by a House appropriations subcommittee. He told lawmakers that the decision to release the immigrants was not discussed in advance with political appointees, including those in the White House and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. He said the pending automatic cuts known as sequestration was "driving in the background."
"We were trying to live within the budget that Congress had provided us," Morton told lawmakers. "This was not a White House call. I take full responsibility."
The subcommittee chairman, Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, pressed Morton about the agency's claims that immigrants were routinely released, and Morton acknowledged that the release of more than 2,000 immigrants was not routine.
"At the time this release started, the president of the United States was going around the country telling people what the pain was going to be from sequester," Carter said. "That's a fact. That was the atmosphere. It was Chicken Little, the sky is falling almost."
Morton told Carter that more immigrants were released in Texas than in any other state but did not name other states where they were released.
The AP, citing internal budget documents, reported exclusively on March 1 that the administration had released more than 2,000 illegal immigrants since Feb. 15 and planned to release 3,000 more in March due to looming budget cuts, but Napolitano said days later that the AP's report was "not really accurate" and that the story had developed "its own mythology."
"Several hundred are related to sequester, but it wasn't thousands," Napolitano said March 4 at a Politico-sponsored event.
On March 5, the House Judiciary Committee publicly released an internal ICE document that it said described the agency's plans to release thousands of illegal immigrants before March 31. The document was among those reviewed independently by the AP for its story days earlier.
The immigrants who were released still eventually face deportation and are required to appear for upcoming court hearings. But they are no longer confined in immigration jails, where advocacy experts say they cost about $164 per day per person. Immigrants who are granted supervised release - with conditions that can include mandatory check-ins, home visits and GPS devices - cost the government from 30 cents to $14 a day, according to the National Immigration Forum, a group that advocates on behalf of immigrants.
Morton said Thursday that among the immigrants released were 10 people considered the highest level of offender. Morton said that although that category of offender can include people convicted of aggravated felonies, many of the people released were facing financial crimes. Four of the most serious offenders have been put back in detention. Other people released include immigrants who had faced multiple drunken driving offenses, misdemeanor crimes and traffic offenses, Morton said.
After the administration challenged the AP's reporting, ICE said it didn't know how many people had been released for budget reasons but would review its records.
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Homeland Security
The case for using drones at home
Safety matters most
By Gerald Walpin — Thursday, March 14th, 2013 ‘The New York Daily News’
(Op-Ed / Commentary)
There were good reasons to object to John Brennan’s confirmation as CIA chief. But the administration’s refusal to handcuff America’s ability to defend itself by promising never, under any circumstances, to use a drone against American citizens in the U.S. is not one.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) filibustered Brennan’s nomination because, he believed, “no American should be killed by a drone, on American soil, without first being charged with a crime, without first being found guilty by a court.”
While Paul claimed to rely on our Constitution, in fact his position is contrary to what our Constitution provides and what our Founders intended. The Constitution declares its purpose is to “insure domestic tranquility (and) provide for the common defense” — both of which impose on our government the duty to provide security for this country.
Rendering the President unable to use whatever measures are then needed, including a drone, to prevent terrorist murders of our people, by an enemy who is a U.S. citizen, would handcuff our government’s ability to perform that function.
Alexander Hamilton, one author of the Constitution, and a primary advocate for its adoption, wrote in Federalist Papers No. 23 concerning “the care of the common defense” as requiring “powers . . . without limitation: Because it is impossible to foresee or define the extent and variety of national exigencies, or the correspondent extent of the means which may be necessary to satisfy them . . . for this reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be imposed on the power.”
This point was so crucial to Hamilton that he repeated it: “There can be no limitation of that authority, which is to provide for the defense and protection of the community.”
Hamilton foresaw and rebutted those, like Paul, who seek to restrain the President’s ability to respond with force effectively against our enemies. He criticized them as “ow[ing] their origin to a zeal for liberty more ardent than enlightened” (Federalist No. 26).
And he made clear that he was not talking just about foreign enemies, but also “seditions and insurrections,” as to which “governing at all times by the simple force of law . . . has no place but in the reveries of those political doctors, whose sagacity disdains the admonitions of experimental instruction”; rather, as to “such emergencies . . . under the national government, there could be no remedy but force” (Federalist No. 28).
Abraham Lincoln understood this necessity during the Civil War. To him, all Confederate soldiers were American citizens engaged in an insurrection. Realistically, some Southern Americans who were not actively participating in the insurrection were caught up in our use of force. But that did not deny Lincoln his power — and his responsibility — to take all actions needed to save our country.
Drones, obviously, did not exist then. But no one should doubt that, if that weapon were then available, Lincoln would have ordered its use to kill Gen. Robert E. Lee and his commanders, found eating dinner in a restaurant in one of the strategy conferences they held.
The Bush administration is said to have made a similar decision on 9/11 when it authorized the military to shoot down one of the planes taken over by terrorists, heading for the White House or the Capitol. Does anyone think President George W. Bush had to let the plane crash into the White House because he needed time to seek court approval?
Of course, a President must be extremely hesitant in employing any weapon — a bullet or a drone — against an American citizen in the U.S. Assume, however, a situation in which an American citizen who has joined Al Qaeda leads a group of terrorists across the border from Canada or Mexico into the U.S., and there is insufficient time or ability to prevent their pressing the button, except by the use of a drone.
Do you really want the President to seek to substitute “due process” for saving thousands of American lives?
Alexander Hamilton said “no.” I agree.
Walpin is a New York lawyer and author of the forthcoming book “The Supreme Court vs. the Constitution.”
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Mike Bosak
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