Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 — 143rd Anniversary of the Founding of the NYPD
Good Afternoon, Stay Safe
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NYPD Honor Legion’s ‘Dishonor’
New York City Police Department burial ground still in need of restoration
Supporters of Police Arlington at Cypress Hills Cemetery not giving up fight
By Lisa Colangelo — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The New York Daily News’
COMMENT: The ‘Honor Legion’ Board of Officers has become an embarrassment. Will somebody please tell them that their primary basis to exist, or function in life, is to document and honor our heroes, both those living and the dead, and to see that their families are honored and taken care of.
Also of note, has anybody ever seen the minutes of any of its board meetings, or an accounting of Honor Legion monies, other than the chosen few, some of whom are now no longer on the board? Please tell!
Additionally, to use one example to document the board's veracity, integrity and strength of character or lack thereof; the board arbitrarily and illogically decided to change the date of the Honor Legion's founding from 1912 to 1900, and did so based on zero facts and zilch for documentation. (Two members of the board candidly told me that it was Michael Scagnelli's scheme, and he intimidated the board into doing so.) If I'm being less than truthful, show us the documentation for the change! I’ll gladly eat crow.
Last and most important: Honor Legion board members, please get your heads out of your butts; you dishonor us all. Chief Inspector Maximilian Schmittberger has to be rolling over in shame in his Woodlawn Cemetery burial plot. - Mike Bosak
It’s time for the Police Arlington at Cypress Hills Cemetery to get ready for its once-a-year close up.
Supporters say they are not giving up their fight to bring some glory back to this little-known New York City Police Department burial ground.
Since 2009, a dedicated group of volunteers, active and retired members of the NYPD have put together a somber but colorful annual memorial service at the site, which holds the remains of police officers.
This year’s ceremony is set for May 25.
The grounds were established over 100 years ago for members of the Metropolitan Police Force of New York. They are now under the watch of the NYPD Honor Legion.
Over the years, the site has deteriorated. The grand bronze statue of a police officer was swiped in the 1960s and plaques that surrounded the pedestal also disappeared.
“We’re hoping that in 2013, we can get the green light to raise funds and get a monument put back,” said Dan Carione, a retired NYPD deputy inspector. “We fear that if we allow this to die, the site will fall off the map permanently.”
Carione knows there have been previous stalled efforts over the years to revive the site.
The biggest stumbling block in recent times has been the NYPD Honor Legion, which has shown minimal interest in restoration efforts.
Volunteers cannot raise money to make any changes without their approval.
But that resistance may be easing up a bit.
Both Carione and John Valles, president of the Traffic Squad Benevolent Association, said the Honor Legion is a co-sponsor of this year’s ceremony.
“There is nothing but history at that site,” said Valles. “We have six officers who died in the line of duty there. It’s important never to forget them.”
The grounds are rich with NYPD history.
Patrolman Henry Haywood, one of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, is buried there.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, a history buff, has attended several of the memorial services and has expressed support for a restoration.
Carione said he and other volunteers have been in touch with artisans and sculptors who are interested in working on a replacement statue.
“We are hopeful that we return to the way it looked in 1871 and open up the burial grounds for retired, destitute NYPD officers,” Carione said. “We don’t want to lose this very important part of NYPD history.”
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NYPD Stop, Question and Frisk
Survey on Gun-Carrying Youth Adds Fodder to Stop-and-Frisk Debate
By SAM ROBERTS — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The New York Times’
Here’s more grist for the debate over whether the New York Police Department stops and frisks too many young members of minority groups: Among high school students in the city, more black and Hispanic young men than white young men said in a federal survey that they had carried a gun at least once in the previous month.
Other variables figure in the stop-and-frisk metric, of course, like descriptions of criminal suspects by victims and witnesses and the demography of neighborhoods in which the police are responding to a crime or where they are monitoring furtive behavior.
But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted locally by health and education agencies, introduces a bit of statistical evidence from the youngsters themselves.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly this month cited figures from 2011 and earlier surveys as support for actions taken in New York City: the percentage of gun-toting teenagers in New York declined between 2001 and 2011 and was smaller than in any other major American city, which the mayor and commissioner said was a result of the local laws against gun possession and of the department’s aggressive policing.
Unmentioned were details of who admits to carrying guns. According to the centers’ 2011 survey of several thousand high school students in New York City, 4.6 percent of black, 4.2 percent of Hispanic and 1.9 percent of non-Hispanic white young men said they had carried a gun at least once within the past 30 days.
Critics expressed skepticism about the results, saying they may have been skewed because some youngsters were probably boasting about being armed while others, fearing prosecution, may have falsely denied carrying a weapon. Moreover, dropouts or others disconnected from the school system might be more likely to have access to a gun.
“Research indicates data of this nature may be gathered as credibly from adolescents as from adults,” countered a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control, Brittany Raines. “Internal reliability checks help identify the small percentage of students who falsify their answers.”
Apprised of the racial and ethnic disparity in the survey, John Feinblatt, the mayor’s chief policy adviser, said: “The data is clear. In New York City, young minority males are more likely to report carrying a gun than any other group. The youth themselves report this. They are also far more likely to be the victims of gun violence. It makes sense that police enforcement resources are in neighborhoods where high-risk groups are most at risk of gun violence.”
But Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is suing the city over the stop-and-frisk policy, countered:
“This is no different than the N.Y.P.D.’s unconstitutional — and highly disputable — claim that since black and Latino New Yorkers commit higher rates of violent crime it legally justifies stopping a grossly disproportionate number of black or Latino individuals. The law requires individualized suspicion based on specific facts. Otherwise you are simply harassing innocent people based on some kind of collective punishment for the color of their skin.”
Paul J. Browne, Mr. Kelly’s chief spokesman, said the department’s strategy was not based on surveys.
“Police make stops based on reasonable suspicion, not on how surveys are conducted or answered,” Mr. Browne said. “Mayor Bloomberg was encouraged that the C.D.C. found indications that New York City teens were carrying guns less often.”
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108 Precinct P.O. Rosette Samuel Tragically ‘Eats the Gun’
NYPD tragedy: Policewoman kills her baby, beau and self
By LARRY CELONA, JAMIE SCHRAM and DAN MANGAN — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The New York Post’
An NYPD cop yesterday killed her boyfriend, their 1-year-old son and then herself in their Brooklyn apartment, police said.
Officer Rosette Samuel, 43, left a note saying she was “sorry” for murdering younger lover Dason Peters, 33, and their baby boy, Dylan, after a weekend of arguing — but said she “had to do it,” sources told The Post.
The 13-year NYPD veteran added that she killed Dylan because “she didn’t want to go it alone,’’ a source said.
Samuel shot Peters as he tried to flee, leaving his body near the front door. She then shot the baby in the chest and killed herself. She and the baby were found next to each other in bed.
“My son is my heart! My son is my everything!” wailed Peters’ grief-wracked mom, Rosamund Peters, as she rushed to the first-floor apartment at 807 E. 56th St. in Flatlands. “Oh, my God! What a loving son I have!”
The killings came three months after Samuel — who had spent years in the Manhattan Traffic division — was transferred to the 108th Precinct in Queens and docked 20 vacation days for failing to show up for traffic court, which led to the dismissals of nearly two dozen tickets.
Yesterday’s tragedy was set in motion Saturday, when Samuel received a letter about her and Peters, a track-maintenance supervisor for the MTA, a source said.
The note — which was found torn up in the toilet — sparked arguments between Samuel and Peters, sources said.
Her 19-year-old son from a prior relationship, Dondre Samuel, scrambled out through a back window during the shootings, wearing only shorts and a windbreaker.
“He was shaken up,” said witness Anthony Beckford, 19. “My uncle asked what happened . . . He was all scraped up and he ran into the back yard. His elbows and his knees were scraped. He said, ‘Look, look!’
“He was frantic. He couldn’t really talk,” Beckford said.
Dondre called 911 — bringing cops racing to the apartment.
“We’re devastated right now,” said a cop at Manhattan Transit. “[Samuel] was a lovely person. She was funny, a great personality, outgoing. She’d always talk about her family . . . She was very fond of her children. They were her life.”
Peters’ cousin, who declined to give his name, said Peters “was a loving father. He loved his child. He was a very good father. They were very close.”
Asked if Peters and Samuel had prior domestic strife, the cousin said, “Never.”
Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli, Jessica Simeone, Wilson Dizard, Lisa Hagen and Lia Eustachewich
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Female cop kills boyfriend, baby in Brooklyn before killing self: police
A 19-year-old son escaped and called police. Cops now investigating the grisly East Flatbush shooting.
By Thomas Tracy , Rocco Parascandola , Edgar Sandoval AND Ginger Adams Otis — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The New York Daily News’
She even killed the baby.
An off-duty cop shot her longtime boyfriend to death in Brooklyn on Monday, just hours before he was scheduled to fly to Guyana. Then, in an act of unimaginable cruelty, Officer Rosette Samuel trained a 9-mm. Glock handgun on the couple’s year-old son and shot him in the chest.
The boyfriend, identified by relatives as 33-year-old Dason Peters, was the first to die. His body was found facedown, covered in blood, in a hallway near the front door.
Cops found Samuel, 43, in the bed, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Her dead baby, Dylan Samuel Peters, was to her immediate left. Her gun — a weapon for use while off duty — was found on her right side.
Police also found a bullet in the baby’s crib.
Samuel, who joined the force in 2000 and was assigned to the 108th Precinct in Queens, wasn’t under extreme work-related stress, sources said.
“There’s nothing in her record that we could divine would have prevented this tragedy,” said Paul Browne, the NYPD’s top spokesman.
Investigators are trying to determine if her boyfriend’s travel plans may have sparked an argument that ended in the double-murder-suicide.
“There’s no love left in the world when a mother can put the barrel of a gun to her own baby and pull the trigger,” said Sheryl Potter, who lives nearby.
Samuel’s 19-year-old son, Dondre Samuel, told police he was in the apartment on E. 56th St. at the time. He woke up around 7 a.m. and spoke to his mother. Then he went back to sleep.
He was later awakened by an argument between his mother and her boyfriend. The teen told police his mother appeared to be hiding a gun under her armpit. Peters was standing and nursing a wound to the midsection.
Rosette Samuel told Dondre to go back into his bedroom. At about 8:20 a.m., he said, he climbed out a window and jumped about 5 feet to the backyard. He ran up an alley and met cops at the front of the house.
“He was frantic,” neighbor Anthony Beckford, 18, said of Dondre. “His knees and elbows were scraped, bloodily. He couldn’t really talk. He was running for his life.”
The teen was wearing boxer shorts and a shirt, witnesses said.
Dondre told police his mother had been arguing all night with Peters. Police sources said Samuel called the 108th Precinct stationhouse to say she was going to be late for her shift that morning.
One of the killer cop’s relatives, who lives a few blocks away from Samuel’s apartment, raced over on a bike when he heard something happened to his cousin.
Tears streamed down Jeff Joseph’s face as he took in the news that Rosette Samuel had murdered her own child, as well as the baby’s father, and then killed herself.
“She was a very good girl,” said Joseph. “She always did good with her life.”
Police said Rosette Samuel was transferred two months ago to the 108th Precinct, which covers Long Island City and Sunnyside. Before that, she was assigned to Manhattan Traffic Division, sources said.
Colleagues at the Traffic Control Division on W. 30th St. described Rosette Samuel, who earned $97,064 with overtime last year, as a loner.
“She didn’t say much and she didn’t smile much,” said one cop. “She was very quiet. She didn’t have any friends.”
None of her brothers and sisters in blue said they saw the violence coming.
“There was no indication she had any problems,” another cop said.
Police officials said cops hadn’t been called to the home previously to investigate domestic disputes.
The slain boyfriend, Peters, was a track construction supervisor with NYC Transit, hired in May 2001 and promoted five years later.
“He loved his child and he was a good father,” said a relative who declined to give his name. “He was leaving today. His ticket was booked. He wasn’t going to live there. He has a good job. He was just going for a week or two.”
Before leaving town, he planned to take his son swimming, relatives said.
Peters’ mother, dressed in blue hospital scrubs, came out of her Brooklyn home and wailed.
“My son is everything!” she screamed. “My son is my heart! What a loving son I have! Oh my God!”
Moms in the neighborhood were left with questions.
“Oh, my God, that is just not normal human behavior,” said Monica Davis, a 28-year-old mother of two. “A mother brings a baby into the world and spends her life protecting her children from harm. You are supposed to die for your baby. So, how do you kill your own baby? How?”
With Kerry Burke, Irving DeJohn and Denis Hamill
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Off-Duty Officer Killed Boyfriend, Their Year-Old Son and Then Herself, Police Say
By WENDY RUDERMAN and NATE SCHWEBER — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The New York Times’
To those on the outside, the couple seemed content, spending time together on a quiet block in Brooklyn, working at solid city-paid jobs and delighting in their infant son.
Almost certainly there was nothing so outwardly amiss between them that it could have foretold the crime that unfolded on Monday morning inside the woman’s apartment on East 56th Street, in the Flatlands neighborhood.
Investigators said the woman, an off-duty police officer identified by family and friends as Rosette M. Samuel, fatally shot her boyfriend and their 1-year-old son before killing herself, the police said.
The officer’s 19-year-old son escaped; he fled through a bedroom window after hearing gunshots, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.
The son, who had been asleep in a rear bedroom, called 911 around 8:30 a.m. and met responding officers in front of the house, where the family rented a first-floor apartment, Mr. Browne said.
The bodies of the officer and baby were found, face up, on a bed; a crib sat near the bed against a bedroom wall, Mr. Browne said. Officers discovered the body of the child’s father lying just inside the home’s entrance, in the front hallway.
“It was a tough crime scene,” Mr. Browne said.
The boyfriend, identified by relatives as 33-year-old Dason Peters, lived nearby and had planned to take his son, Dylan, swimming at an indoor pool near their home later that day. It was a regular father-son outing, according to a man who identified himself as a cousin and co-worker of Mr. Peters.
“Every Monday morning, they swim,” said the cousin, who declined to give his name. The cousin and Mr. Peters worked together at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where Mr. Peters was a track maintenance supervisor.
The cousin added that Mr. Peters, a native of Guyana, was “all excited” about becoming a father after he learned that his girlfriend was pregnant.
When asked if Mr. Peters and his girlfriend had problems, the cousin responded, “Never,” an observation echoed by others.
“I never heard them have an argument,” said Agnes Samuel, 83, who lives next door and is an aunt of Officer Samuel.
Officer Samuel, 43, who joined the police force in September 2000, was most recently assigned to the 108th Precinct in Queens. There was nothing in the officer’s departmental record to indicate that she was troubled, according to Mr. Browne.
As investigators removed the plastic-wrapped bodies of Mr. Peters, Officer Samuel and Dylan from the apartment on Monday afternoon, the question of why still lingered.
A woman dressed in royal blue hospital scrubs who said she was Mr. Peters’s mother collapsed, her arms and legs splayed on the pavement beneath a ribbon of police tape. When police officers helped her up, she wailed and sprinted to her home, about a block away.
“He’s my son. He’s my everything. Oh Father. Oh God. What a loving son I have,” she later said while sobbing on her patio.
Ionie Brown-Johnson, 73, a neighbor, recalled seeing Officer Samuel pushing Dylan in a stroller and cradling him.
“She walks along with the baby in her arms; she looks loving with the baby,” she said. “I’m shaking. I’m asking myself, ‘How could this happen?’ ”
The 19-year-old, whose name was not released, is Officer Samuel’s son from a previous relationship. Investigators said the officer used her “off-duty” gun, a 9-millimeter Glock that she was authorized by the department to carry when not on the job.
J. David Goodman contributed reporting.
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NYPD Officer Shoots Boyfriend, Child Before Killing Self in Brooklyn: Official
By Tamer El-Ghobashy — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The Wall Street Journal’ / New York, NY
An off-duty New York Police Department officer apparently shot and killed her 1-year-old son and the boy’s father before fatally shooting herself inside her apartment in Brooklyn on Monday morning, a law enforcement official said.
Police officers responding to the scene found Rosette Samuel, 43 years old, inside a bedroom of the East 56 Street ground-floor apartment at about 8:30 am, the official said, with her young son by her side on a bed. Both were dead when the police arrived, the official said. The baby was identified as Dylan Samuel-Peters.
The father of the boy, who was identified as 33-year-old Dason Peters, was found shot to death in a hallway in the apartment. According to the official, Samuel’s 19-year-old son from a previous relationship was able to escape the apartment through a window and encountered police officers as they responded to the scene.
The teenager, Dondre Samuel, called 911 when he saw his mother standing with a gun as Peters sat on the floor, the official said. After being ordered back to his room by the couple, he heard a gunshot, the official said.
In a brief exchange with his mother before she apparently shot Dylan and then herself, Rosette Samuel apologized to Dondre Samuel and told him she had left a letter behind for him, the official said.
A note was found by investigators in a purse inside the apartment in which Rosette Samuel apparently wrote that she was sorry for her actions and that she had $42,000 in a retirement account so Dondre Samuel can go to college, the official said.
According to the official, there was little sign of trouble in Rosette Samuel’s life at work.
The official said Samuel had been an officer since September 2000 and was assigned to the 108th Precinct in Queens. She had no history of shooting her weapon on duty and was in good standing within the department.
But Dondre Samuel told detectives that his mother and Peters had an argument on Saturday over a hand written letter that his mother had received, the official said. The contents of that letter were not known. The letter had been torn up and flushed down a toilet in the home, Dondre Samuel told investigators, according to the official.
Friends and relatives of the couple were shaken by the sudden violence, describing Peters as a loving father who was scheduled to travel to his native Guyana on Monday.
Relatives said the couple tended to be private about their relationship but had never displayed signs of trouble.
Alison Fox and Joe Jackson contributed to this report
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Testifies in ‘Frisk’ Trial
Ex-NYPD Chief: Never Heard Profiling Claims
By MARK TOOR — Monday, April 15th, 2013 ‘The Chief / Civil Service Leader’
If racial profiling was a problem in the stop-and-frisk program, just-retired Chief of Department Joseph Esposito testified last week, nobody ever told him about it.
“I have not had anyone come to me and complain, ‘I was stopped because of my skin color,’’’ said Mr. Esposito.
“You never heard a complaint from any community about that?” U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin asked him.
‘No Civilians Complained’
“I don’t get a complaint from a civilian,” Mr. Esposito said. “I’ve heard it from Al Sharpton’s group.”
What he did hear, he testified April 9 and 10 in a Federal class-action suit testing the constitutionality of the way the department runs stop-and-frisk, was more like “'the officer didn’t explain why I was stopped, the officer didn’t identify himself, the officer was rude.'
“My son was stopped, I was stopped,” Mr. Esposito said. “It’s not like it just happens to people of color.” He said he had been stopped in the 1970s when he was a young narcotics officer in Brooklyn. “I don’t think they stopped me because I was white,” he said. “I think they stopped me because I had long hair and I was maybe acting suspiciously, I’m sure...I was kind of taken aback by it, but I understood.”
The lawsuit, Floyd vs. New York, charges that many of the 5 million or so stops over the past 10 years were illegal because they did not meet the standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court. Court rulings say the officer must be able to articulate reasonable suspicion that the person he or she is stopping is involved, was just involved or is about to be involved in a crime, or has a weapon.
Racial Profiling Claims
Opponents of the way the NYPD runs the program say that officers are forced into racial profiling because they have to meet quotas demanded by the department. Eighty-seven percent of those stopped are young black and Latino men, and no more than 12 percent are arrested or given a summons.
Mr. Esposito denied that the department has quotas, using instead the preferred NYPD reference to performance standards. He said that to keep crime from rising, the department needs to make sure that officers are actually working.
“Any company, NY1, Channel 9, Channel 11, there is a certain percentage of people, employees that are just going to do the least amount of work that they can get away with doing,” he said.
The number of stops rose year after year to 685,000 in 2011. Last year, the figure dropped 22 percent amid the rising controversy about the program. Mr. Esposito said much of the increase might have come because the NYPD made the paperwork easier for officers. The forms they are required to file for every encounter were changed so cops no longer had to write a description of the incident, but could check off one or more of 10 pre-printed reasons for the stop.
He said the stop numbers would be even higher, but many officers are slackers. “You have 10 percent...who are complete malcontents,” he said. “They will do as little as possible, no matter how well you treat them.”
Outside the courtroom, Mr. Esposito told reporters, “I go back to the point of, how many crimes did we prevent? How many times did we make that criminal, perhaps, if it is a criminal, think twice and say you know what, I can’t steal this car tonight, I’m going to go home and go to sleep because the cops are on to me? That’s the part that we can’t measure; that’s the untold story that doesn’t get out very much.”
Actually, that story gets out frequently, courtesy of Mayor Bloomberg. He has gone so far as to say that the tactic has saved 5,600 lives since he became Mayor compared to the preceding decade. In fact, no scientific study has drawn a correlation between stop-and-frisk and the crime rate.
Mr. Esposito retired March 27 on the eve of his 63rd birthday, the point at which officers are required by law to leave. He had served 44½ years in the department, including 12 in the highest uniformed rank.
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Incurred During 2011 Raid
City Will Pay $320G For Damaged ‘Occupy’ Gear
By MARK TOOR — Monday, April 15th, 2013 ‘The Chief / Civil Service Leader’
The Bloomberg administration has settled three lawsuits filed over property owned by demonstrators and their supporters that was damaged by the NYPD’s 2011 raid on the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park.
Payouts totaled $320,000, including legal fees. In the most-expensive case, involving the destruction of about 2,800 books in OWS’ makeshift library in the park, the fees were nearly four times the actual damages.
Biggest Payout: Legal Fees
OWS was awarded $47,000 in damages and $186,349.58 in attorney’s fees in that case. About a third of the damages were assessed against Brookfield Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park. The suit originally sought $47,000 in actual damages, at least $1,000 in punitive damages and unspecified legal fees.
“This case was not just about money but the violation of Constitutional rights and the importance of books,” said Norman Siegel, a prominent civil-liberties attorney. “No government should destroy books.”
“It was absolutely necessary for the city to address the rapidly-growing safety and health threats posed by the Occupy Wall Street encampment,” Sheryl Neufeld, Senior Counsel of the city Law Department, said in a statement. “There are many reasons to settle a case, and sometimes that includes avoiding the potential for drawn-out litigation that bolsters plaintiff-attorney fees.”
Laptops Smashed
The second case dealt with computer equipment owned by Global Revolution Television, a leftist media collective that broadcast many of the OWS gatherings. GRT quotes one member as saying, “Dude, all the laptops are in a row. They’ve all been smashed with bats.” He said some items could have been damaged in the scuffle. The settlement awarded $75,000 to GRT and $49,850 to its attorneys.
The third case involved Time’s Up, which bills itself as a “direct-action environmental organization.” Among its activities is sponsorship of the monthly Critical Mass bike rides. Time’s Up was awarded $8,500 for the destruction of bicycle-powered generators it placed in the park after the city cut off electricity. No legal fees were allocated.
OWS was a loosely-organized group whose goals were fuzzy but included bringing attention to economic inequality. On the early morning of Nov. 16, 2011, hundreds of helmeted police officers cleared the park of about 200 demonstrators who had camped there for nearly two months. The books and computer equipment were removed from the park along with tents and other personal property of the protesters. Demonstrators said much of the property was destroyed in the process.
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Long Island
Nassau P.D. Precinct Consolidation Slowed By Sandy’s Impact
By MARK TOOR — Monday, April 15th, 2013 ‘The Chief / Civil Service Leader’
The Nassau Police Department has merged six of its eight precincts into three, but the plan to combine the other two precincts has been stalled because Hurricane Sandy damaged one of the stationhouses.
A spokesman for the Nassau P.D. told THE CHIEF-LEADER last week that the merger of the First and Seventh precincts was delayed indefinitely but was not canceled “at this time.” The situation was first reported by Newsday.
One Flooded, One Ancient
The Seventh Precinct stationhouse in Seaford, which was going to house the combined precinct, was flooded and the First Precinct headquarters in Baldwin, which was set to become a police community center, is old, First Deputy Police Commissioner Thomas C. Krumpter told Newsday. Both stationhouses are located along the South Shore of Nassau County, near the Atlantic Ocean.
“It’s a possibility that we may realign the South Shore among three precincts rather than two precincts,” Mr. Krumpter said. “It may be that, at the end of the day, we build a new building at a better location.” He said a decision would be made within a year.
James C. Carver, president of the Nassau Police Benevolent Association, told THE CHIEF-LEADER that the county had been divided into patrol sectors without regard for precincts, so the effect of any delay on patrol officers would be mostly on an administrative level.
“For the public, it affects them in a good way,” he said, “because the services they’ve always had will continue to be where they always have been.”
He said the merger of the other six precincts had been harder on the public than on the cops, because citizens had to go to different buildings to obtain police services such as investigations and records. The union is still assessing some problems with the merger. “We need to sit down with the County Executive,” he said.
The County Legislature approved the merger a year ago after Mr. Mangano said it would save $20 million from the financially-strapped county’s budget.
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New York State
Justices Refuse Case on Gun Law in New York
By ADAM LIPTAK — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The New York Times’
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday that it would not weigh in on a major Second Amendment question that has divided the lower courts: May states bar or strictly limit the carrying of guns in public for self-defense?
The justices turned down a case concerning a New York State law that requires people seeking permits for carrying guns in public to demonstrate that they have a special need for self-protection. In urging the justices to hear the case, the National Rifle Association called the law “a de facto ban on carrying a handgun outside the home.”
In November, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, upheld the law. California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey have similar laws.
As is their custom, the justices gave no reasons for declining to hear the case from New York. Additional cases presenting essentially the same question are likely to reach the court in the coming months.
In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own guns, and it struck down a District of Columbia law that prohibited keeping guns in homes for self-defense.
“We are aware of the problem of handgun violence in this country,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority in the decision, District of Columbia v. Heller. “But the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table,” he added.
Aside from saying that total bans on the right to keep guns at home for self-defense are unconstitutional, the court has said little else about what other laws may violate the Second Amendment. On the other hand, the Heller decision did include a long list of laws and regulations that would be unaffected by the ruling. Among them were “laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools.”
In the lower courts, very few challenges to gun laws and gun prosecutions since the Heller decision have succeeded.
A major exception came in December, just days before the Newtown, Conn., shootings, when a divided three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, struck down an Illinois law that banned carrying guns in public.
Judge Richard A. Posner, writing for the majority, said the ruling was required by the Heller decision. The court gave the Illinois legislature six months to modify the law.
Judge Posner reviewed the empirical literature about the practical consequences for crime and safety of bans on carrying guns in public, and he found it inconclusive. “Anyway,” Judge Posner wrote, “the Supreme Court made clear in Heller that it wasn’t going to make the right to bear arms depend on casualty counts.”
The Illinois decision is in tension with the one from New York, and such conflicts often prompt Supreme Court review. Last month, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., upheld the Maryland law.
The case turned down by the Supreme Court on Monday, Kachalsky v. Cacace, No. 12-845, was brought by five New Yorkers who had been denied permits to carry handguns in public. In urging the justices not to hear the case, Eric T. Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general, said the state’s permit requirement was a reasonable regulation that was consistent with the Second Amendment. The Illinois law, by contrast, he said, amounted to a blanket prohibition.
In a statement issued Monday, Mr. Schneiderman said that “New York State has enacted sensible and effective regulations of concealed handguns, and this decision keeps those laws in place.” He added that the court’s order declining to hear the case amounted to “a victory for families across New York who are rightly concerned about the scourge of gun violence that all too often plagues our communities.”
A lawyer for the challengers did not respond to a request for comment.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan of Illinois has said that she will wait to see what the state’s legislature does before deciding whether to ask the Supreme Court to hear the decision striking down the Illinois law.
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U.S.A.
Boston bombings shatter a national sense of safety
The attack, which appears to be the first successful terrorist strike in a U.S. city since Sept. 11, 2001, returns security to the center of the public eye.
By David Lauter — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The Los Angeles Times’ / Los Angeles, CA
WASHINGTON — It was the kind of event that had long been predicted — even considered inevitable.
But the explosions Monday in Boston, which appeared to be the first successful terrorist strike against a U.S. city since Sept. 11, struck at the nation's sense of safety in public places and sparked a search for answers.
"In some ways, this ruptures the psyche," said Juan Carlos Zarate, deputy national security advisor in the George W. Bush administration who is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
The only similar deadly attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11 was on a military base at Ft. Hood, Texas, and involved soldiers, he noted. Americans have had a "social memory loss" of what it's like to be attacked.
"Now we have that soft target hit that we have imagined but not seen before since 9/11," he said. "We don't know who perpetrated it — we'll have to see. But regardless, it shatters the sense of security we've had, especially coming at an event like this."
A senior U.S. counter-terrorism official said no evidence currently linked the bombing to any specific group or individuals, and no intelligence suggested an international connection.
But government analysts leaned toward the theory that the attack was the work of home-grown radicals inspired by Al Qaeda, as opposed to anti-government extremists. They based that hunch in part on the use of multiple bombs in a public place, which has been a signature of Al Qaeda strikes, and on the fact that the target was not connected to a government building.
"My educated guess would be self-radicalized Islamic extremists from the area," the official said, speaking anonymously to discuss intelligence matters.
The Boston attack was less sophisticated than Sept. 11 or the wave of bombings that killed hundreds on London's subways and Madrid's rail system over the past decade.
Indeed, some terrorism experts said they were puzzled by the selection of the Boston Marathon as a target. The race is a major event that attracts runners worldwide, but it lacks the high international symbolism of some other terrorist targets, including Times Square, the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. That choice may also lend credence to the theory that the attacker or attackers had ties to the Boston area.
"Those previous attempts on Times Square and the New York subway, had they succeeded, would have been substantially more lethal than this," said Philip Mudd, a former senior CIA and FBI official and an expert in Al Qaeda operations. "Objectively I would say it leads me to question whether there is substantial overseas involvement. You've got basic devices without an iconic target."
Ever since Sept. 11, officials had warned that sooner or later, some attacker would succeed, a theme they repeated Monday.
"There's not going to be any way to protect the country completely against individual attacks," said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), who serves on the House intelligence committee. "But I think you'll find when morning comes a determination not to let this change our way of life. I think the American people are tough and determined and will not let this change how we live our lives."
Despite that sentiment, the threat of terrorism has already changed Americans' lives in ways both large and small, including heightened security at airports and a significant expansion of police powers, which critics say has led to an erosion of civil liberties.
Under administrations of two different political parties, law enforcement agencies have succeeded in thwarting numerous plots, now known mostly by nicknames that underscored their ineffectiveness — the shoe bomber, the underwear bomber and the like. As years have gone by without a successful attack, concern about terrorism has slipped down the list of public concern, and support for some anti-terrorism measures has begun to wane.
As of Monday morning, the nation's public life was sharply focused on the domestic issues of immigration, gun control and the budget deficit.
How much that will change will depend on answers yet to come — who is found responsible for the attack, whether any obvious lapses of security precautions helped make it possible, whether obvious warnings were overlooked.
By day's end, however, it was clear that the Boston bombings had suddenly put terrorism back high on the national agenda.
Staff writers Ken Dilanian, Kathleen Hennessey, Christi Parsons and Brian Bennett contributed to this article.
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FBI Probe Heats Up in Deadly Boston Marathon Bombings (11:31 a.m. EDT)
By ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES, JENNIFER LEVITZ, KEVIN HELLIKER and SARA GERMANO — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The Wall Street Journal’ / New York, NY
The FBI-led investigation into the bombings at the Boston Marathon that killed three and wounded more than 170 intensified Tuesday, with authorities interviewing witnesses and processing what one official called the "most complex crime scene" the city had ever dealt with.
"Two and only two explosive devices were found yesterday," said Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick at a news conference Tuesday morning. "All other parcels in the area of the blast have been examined, but there are no other unexploded bombs found."
Officials appealed for tips from the public and any video or photographic images of the blasts. "We have received voluminous tips in the last 18 hours," said Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the Boston office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "We strongly encourage that assistance to continue."
The tally of those injured in the bombings increased to 176, with 17 in critical condition and three dead, police said. Among those killed was 8-year-old Martin Richard of Boston's Dorchester section. His mother and sister were seriously injured.
"This will be a world-wide investigation," Mr. DesLauriers said. "We will go to the ends of the earth to find those responsible for this despicable crime."
No one is in custody in the investigation, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said Tuesday. But officials said they know of no other imminent threats related to the explosions Monday.
Mr. Davis said law enforcement swept the course for explosives Monday, early in the morning and an hour before the first runner crossed the finish line. But he said that didn't preclude someone from planting devices after the last sweep. No unexploded devices were found after the blasts, officials said, though they did investigate some suspicious items that didn't turn out to be dangerous.
President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the deadly bombings were "an act of terrorism." He said the U.S. will pursue every avenue to find out what happened and who was behind the attack, calling it a "heinous and cowardly" act. The president praised first responders and doctors for helping after the explosions.
Late Monday and early Tuesday, authorities searched an apartment in Revere, Mass., near Boston, people familiar with the probe said, but one person said they haven't found evidence of involvement in the attacks. Two people familiar with the probe described the search as a precautionary move.
On Tuesday, cities across the U.S., from Washington to Los Angeles, tightened security, monitoring landmarks, government buildings, transit hubs and sporting events.
New York Police Department officials activated emergency measures to protect "hotels and other prominent locations" in the city, spokesman Paul Browne said Monday. Critical response vehicles were deployed to locations throughout the city "until more about the explosion is learned," he said.
The London Marathon, scheduled to take place on Sunday, will go on in a show of "solidarity" for Boston, race organizers said. Security measures are being reviewed, but "the best way for us to react is to push ahead with the marathon on Sunday, to get people on the streets and to celebrate it as we always do in London," said a race official, quoted by the Associated Press.
The blasts occurred at about 2:50 p.m. Monday, some three hours after the winners had crossed the finish line but while thousands more runners still were on the streets. The two bombs exploded 50 to 100 yards apart near the course's end in the city's crowded Back Bay section, Boston Police said.
Panicked spectators fled the scene as smoke from the blasts filled the air, sirens wailed and exhausted, disoriented runners and families raced to find one another amid the mayhem.
Thom Kenney, a 43-year-old Army veteran who recently returned from Afghanistan, had just crossed the finish line when the explosions rang out. "Most of the people were looking back at the first explosion, wondering what it was, when the second explosion went off," he said. "When that went off, we all started calling our families as fast as we could."
The explosions "sounded like an IED—that was the first reaction that I had," he said, referring to the improvised explosive devices used in Afghanistan.
Police initially reported a third explosion at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, about six miles away, then said it had been a fire in a mechanical room. But fearing more explosions or other events, authorities urged people to stay inside and avoid large crowds.
The blasts temporarily halted the city's transportation system as well as flights. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered flights bound for Boston's Logan International Airport to remain at their original airports until late afternoon.
Hospitals around the city were flooded with victims bearing a range of injuries.
"These are very high-force, high-impact injuries so they cause a lot of damage to tissue and to bone," said Ron Walls, chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Shrapnel embedded in some patients' skin seemed to be objects from the street, not from any explosive device, he said.
Four patients at Massachusetts General Hospital have undergone amputations, and two more limbs are in jeopardy, the hospital's chief trauma surgeon said Tuesday morning.
Of the 21 still in the hospital, eight remain in critical condition, said Dr. George Velmahos. Some remain medically sedated and face multiple serious surgeries, but he was optimistic all would live, as vital signs had stabilized and bleeding was controlled, he said.
Some of the patients had "10, 20, 30, 40" pieces of shrapnel in their bodies, and others faced injuries from the bomb's shock effect, Dr. Velmahos said. None of the patients were runners, he said.
At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Dr. Stephen Epstein, attending physician in the emergency department, said X-rays of patients showed metal balls that appeared to be ball bearings. "They look like BBs," he said, adding that the balls were distinct from the shrapnel thrown up from debris on the street. Dr. Epstein said some people are at risk of losing limbs.
A Justice Department official said Attorney General Eric Holder directed agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate. The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Texas), said that "if this is in fact a malicious attack, those responsible will be held accountable.''
Brent Cunningham, 46, had traveled from Sitka, Alaska, to run in the marathon. "We heard two explosions, and I thought, 'that had a 9/11 feel to it,' " he said.
Mr. Cunningham had finished the race and was walking in Boston Common with his family when the blasts hit. "It wasn't until we heard sirens, then we knew something had happened."
Beth Wolniewicz, a 46-year-old Chicago resident, said she had finished the race about three minutes before the initial blast. "I saw the first explosion. I never saw the second one go off," she said. "It was loud but more staggering was the velocity of the smoke. It was rising really quickly."
Paul Thompson, a spectator who is a sports cardiologist, has researched and published extensively about the health implications of running the Boston Marathon. Driving away from the bloody scene near the finish line Monday, Dr. Thompson couldn't speak without crying.
"For what? For what?" said the 65-year-old. "These people are totally innocent. They're not engaged in combat."
A 29-time finisher of the race who first witnessed it as a child at his father's knee, Dr. Thompson said he couldn't imagine the race ever being the same. "Unequivocally, it will change these events. It will become less fun. Less of a party. I just can't tell you how terrible I think this is."
—Ted Mann, Devlin Barrett, Jon Kamp, Cameron McWhirter, Mike Esterl, Caroline Porter, Jack Nicas, Lisa Fleisher and Stu Woo contributed to this article.
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Boston, Massachusetts
Police Commissioner Reports 176 Casualties (10:07 am EDT)
By Jennifer Preston — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The New York Times’
Police Commissioner Ed Davis of Boston said that 176 people were taken to area hospitals after the explosions. He said three people had died and 17 people were in critical condition.
—
Police: Bomb Sweep One Hour Before Attack
Police Commissioner Ed Davis of Boston said that there were two sweeps for bombs in the area before the 2:50 p.m. explosion, including a sweep one hour before the attack. However, he said that people could “come and go and bring items in and out.”
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F.B.I.: No Known New Threats.
Richard DesLauriers, who is leading the investigation for the F.B.I., said that there were “no known threats” in the aftermath of the explosions. He said that law enforcement officials have received voluminous tips, and that investigators were reviewing them.
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Governor Patrick: Only Two Explosives Found .
Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts said at a Tuesday morning news conference that the police confirmed that there were only two devices found. None of the other suspicious packages identified since the 2:50 p.m. twin explosions at the finish lines of the Boston Marathon were bombs.
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Back to the Future
Heroin is back. Is your neighborhood next?
Powerful prescription painkillers have become pricier and harder to use. So addicts across the USA are turning to this more volatile drug. The new twist: Heroin is no longer just an inner-city plague.
By Donna Leinwand Leger — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘USA Today’
Heroin in Charlotte has become so easy to get that dealers deliver to the suburbs and run specials to attract their young, professional, upper-income customers.
These lawyers, nurses, cops and ministers are showing up in the detox ward at Carolinas Medical Center, desperate to kick an opiate addiction that often starts with powerful prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin.
The center analyzed the patients' ZIP codes to find out where heroin had taken root, says Robert Martin, director of substance abuse services at the medical center.
"Our heroin patients," he said, "come from the five best neighborhoods."
What Martin and others like him are witnessing is a growing and more dangerous wave of drug addiction sweeping the country, ensnaring a new population — several hundred thousand Americans — in the heroin trap and importing crime to America's suburbs. Feeding the frenzy: Prescription painkiller addicts are finding their drug of choice in short supply, so heroin becomes their drug of last resort.
As addicts move from legitimate prescriptions to the black market of pure, precisely measured narcotic pain pills to the dirty world of dealers, needles and kitchen table chemists, health officials and police are noting sharp increases in overdoses, crime and other public health problems.
"When you switch to heroin, you don't know what's in there from batch to batch," says Karen Simone, director of the Northern New England Poison Center, which in September documented a spike in heroin overdoses in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. "It's a big jump to go to heroin. It may be strong; it may be weak. They don't know what they are getting. Suddenly, the whole game changes."
WHAT'S DRIVING THE SHIFT
America arrived at this moment after a decades-long increase in the number of people using, and abusing, powerful pain pills. The narcotics had become easier to obtain — some pain clinics issued prescriptions by the thousands — and many found a quick path to the black market.
To stem the abuses, authorities over the past decade began cracking down on clinics, and drug companies began creating pill formulations that made them harder to crush and snort for a quick high. Thus, opiate addicts have found it more difficult, and expensive, to get their fix. An 80 mg OxyContin can cost $60 to $100 a pill. In contrast, heroin costs about $45 to $60 for a multiple-dose supply.
OxyContin, a narcotic painkiller in the opiate family, came on the market in 1996. By 2001, it became the nation's best-selling brand name narcotic pain reliever. Although it's a highly effective drug for people suffering from chronic pain from diseases such as cancer, the Drug Enforcement Administration noted high levels of abuse, particularly in West Virginia and Kentucky, where it became known as "hillbilly heroin."
Once tighter restrictions were in place, prescription painkiller abuse declined, particularly among young adults 18 to 25, according to the most recent National Survey of Drug Use and Health. At the same time, the number of heroin abusers rose sharply.
•The number of people who say they regularly abuse painkillers dropped from 5,093,000 in 2010 to 4,471,000 in 2011, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Young adults who said they regularly abused painkillers dropped from a high of 1.62 million in 2006 to 1.22 million in 2011, the survey found.
•The survey estimated that 281,000 people 12 and older regularly used heroin in 2011, up from a decade low of 119,000 in 2003.
•Another study that measures the number of people seeking treatment for heroin found increases in 30 of 39 states reporting data in 2011 to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In 2011, 238,184 sought treatment for heroin addictions, up from 224,198, SAMHSA spokesman Brad Stone said.
A LETHAL SUBSTITUTE
Doctors, substance abuse counselors, police and federal agents from Portland, Maine, to San Diego, in cities such as Charlotte and small towns in central Pennsylvania, also report surges in heroin use. In Illinois, the state crime commission in March called heroin an epidemic after authorities noted that the Chicago metro area ranks first in the nation for people admitted to the emergency room for heroin use.
Public health authorities in Portland, Maine, which struggled with pain killer abuse for nearly a decade, expected an increase in heroin abuse and are dealing with the fallout of overdoses, says Ronni Katz, substance abuse prevention program coordinator for the city. Portland issued an alert Feb. 5 about a potent batch of heroin that apparently led to a rash of overdoses.
"One substance will go down, but another will go up. And unfortunately, I think (heroin abuse) is going to grow," Katz said.
The trend to heroin bore out in Mark Publicker's 24-bed detox ward at Mercy Hospital Recovery Center in Portland, where as many as half the patients are addicted to opiates. Publicker saw a startling change six to eight months ago as patients, who once favored oxycodone, reported intravenous heroin as their opiate of choice.
IV heroin is particularly dangerous because addicts may share needles, exposing themselves to blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis, and can easily overdose when injecting heroin directly into their bloodstream, Publicker said.
"As bad as oxycodone is, heroin is worse," Publicker said. "It's worse because here in Maine, it's injected. We're talking about a novice population of drug injectors who are not educated about needle use."
Most frightening, he says, is how young the users are. "We're talking 18-, 19-, 20-, 21-year-olds," he said.
One young patient who entered treatment in February started using painkillers properly prescribed after ankle surgery but became addicted within a year, Publicker said. About 18 months ago, she switched to IV heroin and shared needles with her boyfriend.
"I don't think this is an atypical story," Publicker says.
Supervisory Special Agent Tom Lenox of the DEA's San Diego's office says he, too, has seen teens progress from popping pills to smoking heroin. "It's unbelievable that we're talking about this stuff with teenagers," he said.
In Charlotte, many of the opiate addicts in the Carolinas clinic got their start with powerful painkillers prescribed after surgery or a broken bone, said Martin, the substance abuse services director. As doctors cut off their prescriptions and the black market supply withered, they turned to cheaper, easier-to-find heroin.
The going rate for a tiny balloon filled with a dose of heroin costs $9, Martin said. A heavy user may take up to 10 doses a day. In contrast, prescription pain pills containing oxycodone sell for up to a dollar a milligram — $80 for an 80 mg pill.
"A lot of dealers, if you buy nine balloons, they give you one free," he says. "You can call or text a dealer, and they'll deliver."
'HEROIN IS HUGE'
Once considered an urban drug, heroin has found an unwelcome home in small towns and suburbs.
In Minnesota, one in five people seeking treatment is addicted to opiates, says Carol Falkowski, the former drug abuse strategy officer for Minnesota and a member of the Community Epidemiology Working Group at the National Institute of Drug Abuse, which tracks trends in drug use.
"Heroin is huge. We've never had anything like it in this state," she says. "It's very affordable. It's very high purity. Most people did not believe that heroin would happen here in Lake Woebegone, but it really has a grip, not only in the Twin Cities, but all around the state."
In Elizabethtown, Pa., a borough of 12,000 people in Lancaster County, Police Chief Jack Mentzer noted prescription pill addicts gradually turn to heroin over the past 18 months.
"Folks are looking for that better high," Mentzer said. "Lots of them started with prescription drugs. When that didn't do it, they would start crushing them. And when that didn't work, they turned to more of the street drugs."
With the street drugs came the crime wave.
"The No. 1 thing that we see are the crimes that are directly or indirectly related to the drug abuse," Mentzer said. "They will do almost anything for a quick dollar, stealing from mom and dad, committing burglaries."
In Delaware, heroin investigations have soared over the past two years, says Sgt. Paul Shavack, spokesman for the Delaware State Police and a former commander of the state's drug task force.
In 2011, Delaware State Police conducted 578 heroin investigations. Last year, the number of investigations more than doubled to 1,163, Shavack says. This year, heroin continues to be the top street drug, and the whys in Delaware are the same as in other states from coast to coast: It's cheaper and easy to get. Crime, too, has spiked — particularly burglaries and thefts from vehicles, Shavack says.
"You look for your next hit or your next high," he says. "You have to have money to do that, so they look for quick-turn items like jewelry and electronics. They sell (the items) very quickly and go get their next bundle of heroin."
For many, it's simple economics, says DEA Special Agent Amy Roderick in San Diego.
When pain pill addicts in San Diego can't find or afford OxyContin, which sells for as much as $100 a pill there, they'll purchase heroin for $80 a gram, she said.
"You're just getting more bang for the buck," Roderick said. "Once you're addicted to an opiate, you're addicted. If you can't get what you want, you'll take what you can get," even if it means using a needle to get high.
Many of the heroin users and dealers whom federal agents arrest in San Diego are younger than 30, and some are as young as 17, she said.
"They're telling us as we're arresting them, 'We can't find the Oxy. We can't find the Vicodin,' " Roderick said. "It's a very dangerous drug. Once you're addicted, it takes over your life."
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Identity Theft is Big Business; Credit Card Number May Fetch Hundreds of Dollars
By Ted Gest — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The John Jay College of Criminal Justice Crime & Justice News’ / Washington, DC
Your credit-card data is out there, and criminals are buying and selling it in bulk, reports the Arizona Republic. Credit-card data theft is exploding, increasing 50 percent from 2005 to 2010, says the U.S. Department of Justice.
Millions of card numbers are for sale. A single number might go for $10 to $50; a no-limit American Express card number for a consumer with good credit can sell for hundreds of dollars, said Monica Hamilton of the cybersecurity firm McAfee Inc. in Santa Clara, Ca.
Identity theft has become big business. The number of malicious programs written to steal your information has grown exponentially to an estimated 130 million from about 1 million in 2007, Hamilton said. The most successful identity thieves have learned that it's more lucrative to hack into businesses, where they can steal card numbers by the thousands or even millions.
Losses suffered by the businesses they hack can be staggering - an estimated $150 to $250 for each card number stolen. Those costs come in the form of legal settlements, fees for consultants hired to remove malware, and personnel hours spent notifying customers.
The costs are passed on to consumers in the form of higher retail prices and credit-card fees.
Arizona Republic: http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/20130401identity-theft-growing-costly.html?nclick_check=1
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Missouri
Missouri official resigns amid concealed guns flap
By David A. Lieb (The Associated Press) — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013; 10:02 a.m. EDT
A top official in Gov. Jay Nixon's administration abruptly resigned Monday, becoming the first person to step aside amid a controversy over the way Missouri gathers information about people with concealed gun permits.
Department of Revenue Director Brian Long had been on the job for just four months. His appointment had come shortly after the agency had launched a new driver's licensing process in which clerks make electronic copies of people's personal documents, such as birth certificates and concealed gun permits, to be saved in a state database.
Long and other members of the Democratic governor's administration had defended the process as a strong safeguard against fraud, despite criticism from Republican lawmakers who denounced it as a potential invasion of privacy. But on Monday, Long submitted his resignation effective immediately, noting he was doing so "with great regret."
"My brief tenure as Director has taken a toll on me and my family that I could not have anticipated when I accepted the position in December 2012," Long wrote in his resignation letter, which the governor's office released upon the request of The Associated Press.
Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said Long was neither asked nor encouraged to resign. Long did not immediately return a telephone message.
The controversy began in early March, when Republicans touted a lawsuit challenging the licensing office procedure of making copies of concealed gun permits. Local licensing offices handle concealed gun documents because they issue the necessary photo identification cards or place the concealed-carry endorsement on people's driver's licenses.
Long and other members of Nixon's administration have said those scanned documents are being kept on a state computer server and not shared with the federal government or other entities. But during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week, the head of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said his agency had twice obtained a separate electronic list of concealed gun permit holders that was based on driver's license information and shared that list with a fraud investigator in the Social Security Administration.
An email a federal agent sent Nov. 17, 2011, to the Highway Patrol said "the purpose for this list is to cross match it to the Social Security Administration database for people who are currently collecting disability for a mental illness." People who have been judged mentally incompetent aren't supposed to be able to get Missouri concealed gun permits.
The Social Security Administration said Monday that its investigators were unable to read either the original encrypted disk or a subsequent electronic spreadsheet provided this January. In both cases, it said the disks were destroyed.
But even that acknowledgement came with confusion and controversy. Late last week, the inspector general of the Social Security Administration had told U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., that its investigators had been able to read the second disk. Luetkemeyer held a news conference Monday in Jefferson City recounting that conversation. Only after that did the Social Security Administration say it had mistakenly provided him incorrect information.
"Blaine is absolutely furious," Luetkemeyer spokesman Paul Sloca said later Monday. "We are now definitely going to become more involved in light of these recent developments. This is supposed to be an investigatory body, and they should know better than to give out information unless it's verified."
Long's resignation was announced in a news release by Nixon as a House committee was hearing testimony on a bill motivated by the Revenue Department's handling of concealed gun information. The bill would let the Legislature oust department directors when they deem it "necessary for the betterment of the public service."
Among those testifying for the bill was Stephen Barnes, a disabled former sheet metal worker from California, Mo., who said he has a permit to carry a concealed gun. He was outraged that his name likely was on the list shared with Social Security investigators.
"They've been going rogue up there in the federal government, and you don't know what they're going to do with this information," Barnes said in an interview.
The Missouri House already has passed legislation that would bar the Revenue Department from making electronic copies of applicants' personal documents and require any materials already collected to be destroyed. A similar bill is pending in the Senate.
State Rep. Todd Richardson, who sponsored that legislation, said Long's departure does not alleviate the need for the Legislature to also take action.
"I'm not going to pass judgment on whether Director Long was the right person to take the fall for this decision or not, said Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, adding "I hope that it shows the governor is taking this seriously."
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Immigration Enforcement / Illegal Aliens
Immigration Overhaul Proposal Is Likely to Ignite Fierce Debate
By ASHLEY PARKER — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The New York Times’
WASHINGTON — The introduction of sweeping immigration legislation on Tuesday is likely to ignite a months-long battle between those who want citizenship for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants and opponents who view such an approach as amnesty.
A bipartisan group of eight senators plans to unveil legislation, drafted largely in secret, that would provide a 13-year path to American citizenship for illegal immigrants who arrived in the country before Dec. 31, 2011, but would demand that tougher border controls be in place first. The legislation is certain to unleash a torrent of attacks from Republican opponents on the immigration overhaul, similar to the kind of criticism that killed an effort supported by President George W. Bush in 2007.
The group plans to file the legislation on Tuesday, but canceled its scheduled news conference because of the Boston Marathon bombing.
“We all met in the middle, knowing we would not please our entire constituencies, but the imperative of doing this is so important to the country that we had to get it done,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and a member of the bipartisan group. “Americans will be common-sense and fair to legal immigration and the 11 million who are here as long as they’re convinced there won’t be future waves of illegal immigration.”
The biggest test will come for those Republicans who support the bill and will have to convince their skeptical Senate colleagues, constituents and grass-roots conservative base — not to mention Republicans in the House — that the legislation is not a reward for people who broke the law by entering the country illegally.
The bill requires that illegal immigrants wait a minimum of 10 years until they apply for legal permanent residence and an additional three years until full naturalization. It also mandates a series of rigorous enforcement measures, including at least $3 billion for the Department of Homeland Security to fortify border surveillance and apprehensions.
The department will have six months to present a plan to begin securing the border and identify where more border fencing might be required. No immigrants would be allowed to apply for “registered provisional immigrant” legal status — which would allow them to live and work here legally, as well as travel outside the country — until both plans are complete.
In order to apply for permanent resident visas, known as green cards, after 10 years, illegal immigrants would have to pay an approximate $2,000 penalty fee, including $500 up front. They must also demonstrate knowledge of English and civics, and have worked regularly and maintained a continuous physical presence in the country.
In addition, agricultural workers and children brought to the country illegally by their parents — know as “Dreamers” — would receive an expedited path to legal status. (Both groups would be able to receive green cards in five years. The Dreamers would be eligible for citizenship immediately after they got their green cards.)
The bill also creates a W-Visa program for lower-skilled workers, the outgrowth of a parallel negotiation between the country’s largest business and labor groups. A Bureau of Immigration and Labor Market Research, which is to be created by the bill, would be responsible for overseeing the number of workers who could come in annually.
The legislation also aims to eliminate the backlog of 4.7 million immigrants who have applied to come here legally and have been languishing waiting for green cards. It creates a merit-based program for foreigners to become legal permanent residents, which focuses on both high and low work skills.
Tuesday’s legislation comes after months of delicate and fraught negotiations within the bipartisan group as well as a carefully managed public relations campaign that the senators hope will blunt any criticism before the expected attacks. Opponents of an immigration overhaul have been preparing to jump on what they see as objectionable sections of the legislation.
“We had to make compromises,” said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, a member of the bipartisan group. “What really matters is most Americans agree with us that we need to address this issue in a comprehensive fashion. That was not true in 2007. I think that’s a very big difference.”
In 2007, talk radio hosts and anti-immigration groups mobilized a campaign of angry phone calls to members of Congress that ultimately shut down the Congressional switchboard. If Republican lawmakers hope to pass their bill in the Senate and get it through the Republican-controlled House, they will likely have to do more of the grunt work than their Democratic counterparts to bring voters and legislators on board.
Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, another member of the group, has perhaps the most at risk. A Tea Party darling elected in 2010, his political aspirations are tied to the success of the legislation as well as to how his conservative base responds to his involvement in the bill.
This year, Mr. Rubio got a jump-start on an immigration tour when he appeared on conservative television and radio shows and reached out in phone calls and meetings to talk about the impending legislation. On Sunday, he pressed his case on five major network television programs as well as two Spanish-language networks.
The bill would allow an individual who qualifies for the new path to citizenship — but has been deported for noncriminal reasons — to re-enter the country as a “registered provisional immigrant,” as long as the individual has a spouse or child who is a citizen or lawful permanent resident. Anyone in the country under the registered provisional immigrant status, however, would not be eligible for food stamps or other federal aid programs.
Under the new, merit-based visas, the legislation would gradually shift the emphasis from granting them based on family ties, toward visa approvals based on points awarded for an immigrant’s work skills, current employment, education and length of time in the United States.
In another border security measure, and a concession to the Republican members of the group, employers would be required to use an enhanced electronic verification system to make sure they are not employing anyone in the country illegally. Noncitizens would need to show a “biometric work authorization card” or “biometric green card.”
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who leads the Senate Judiciary Committee, has scheduled two hearings on the bill — a response, in part, to Mr. Rubio, who has repeatedly called for public hearings.
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Homeland Security (New York City)
After Boston bombings, 1,000 cops deployed to landmarks and transit sites
By JOSH MARGOLIN, KIRSTAN CONLEY and BETH DEFALCO — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The New York Post’
NYPD cops yesterday flooded city streets, landmarks and transit hubs — while scrutinizing live video feeds at key spots for suspicious activity — in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.
“This changes everything here,’’ one grim-faced source told The Post of yesterday’s terror attack.
“Everyone’s on high alert. Our marathon was canceled in November. Who knows if that changed someone’s plans [to attack in Boston instead of New York]?’’
Seventh Avenue in Times Square looked like an NYPD parking lot, as blue-and-white patrol cars lined the streets and officers toted AR-15 rifles, which were commonly seen after the 9/11 attacks.
Mayor Bloomberg ordered the NYPD to mobilize its entire 1,000-member counterterrorism squad “to protect our city.”
Gov. Cuomo put the entire state on “heightened alert” and sent National Guard vehicles and soldiers to Boston to aid in its recovery efforts.
The Port Authority said it had voluntarily “heightened” security restrictions at and around airports and the World Trade Center.
Special attention was being paid to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Columbus Circle and the Bank of America Tower in Midtown because bombs in Boston were found near those branches, law-enforcement sources told the Post.
Federal authorities told The Post that they viewed the Boston bombing as “a more successful version of the Times Square” attack in 2010.
In that attack, a homemade car bomb ended up failing to detonate — but if it had, it could have killed or injured hundreds, sources have said.
The feds recalled dozens of agents who were on leave or vacation to boost the region’s counterterrorism units.
Bomb-sniffing dogs were out in full force at Penn Station, making some travelers and vendors nervous.
“I came here and saw all the canines. It’s a little bit scary when something like this happens,” said Elin Sordsdhal, 49, who was headed to Boston by train. “That’s exactly what the terrorists want.”
The MTA said police patrols and baggage inspections were being increased on all subway lines, the LIRR and Metro-North.
“We’ll be paying additional attention to the subway system until we more fully understand what happened in Boston and the potential threat that exists,” an MTA spokesman told The Post.
Mahbub Kamal, 51, of Queens who sells phone cards at a Port Authority stand, said, “I have seen more cops today. Two of them had assault rifles.’’
Another vendor, Paul Alves, 24, of the Upper East Side, added, “I haven’t seen cops with assault weapons here for 10 years. I’m a little scared.
“But I just gotta do my job. Life goes on. Whatever happens happens.”
One jittery commuter tweeted last night: “The presence of the NYPD in the subways today is overwhelming and appreciated.’’
Additional reporting by Larry Celona, Jamie Schram and Wilson Dizard
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NYPD Steps Up Security After Boston Explosions
By Tamer El-Ghobashy — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The Wall Street Journal’ / New York, NY
In the hours after the apparent twin explosions in Boston, New York Police Department officials activated emergency measures to protect “hotels and other prominent locations” in New York City.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said in a news release that critical response vehicles were being deployed to locations throughout the city “until more about the explosion is learned.”
According to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has been briefed and told the explosions appear “intentional.”
Mayor Bloomberg’s said in a statement that 1,000 members of the NYPD assigned to counter-terrorism duties “are being fully mobilized to protect our city.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he has directed state agencies such as the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services and State Police to be on “a heightened state of alert” and that the New York National Guard on Sunday sent three vehicles and six soldiers to support the marathon.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced through its Twitter feed that the MTA police would increase patrols and bag inspections Monday on the Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road in response to the Boston explosions. The NYPD will give “additional attention” to the subways as well, a spokesman said in a statement.
“The increased coverage will continue until we fully understand the cause of the explosions in Boston,” the spokesman said.
See the Journal’s continuing coverage of the explosions.
Ted Mann contributed to this report.
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U.S. Practiced Torture After 9/11, Nonpartisan Review Concludes
By SCOTT SHANE — Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 ‘The New York Times’
WASHINGTON — A nonpartisan, independent review of interrogation and detention programs in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks concludes that “it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture” and that the nation’s highest officials bore ultimate responsibility for it.
The sweeping, 577-page report says that while brutality has occurred in every American war, there never before had been “the kind of considered and detailed discussions that occurred after 9/11 directly involving a president and his top advisers on the wisdom, propriety and legality of inflicting pain and torment on some detainees in our custody.” The study, by an 11-member panel convened by the Constitution Project, a legal research and advocacy group, is to be released on Tuesday morning.
Debate over the coercive interrogation methods used by the administration of President George W. Bush has often broken down on largely partisan lines. The Constitution Project’s task force on detainee treatment, led by two former members of Congress with experience in the executive branch — a Republican, Asa Hutchinson, and a Democrat, James R. Jones — seeks to produce a stronger national consensus on the torture question.
While the task force did not have access to classified records, it is the most ambitious independent attempt to date to assess the detention and interrogation programs. A separate 6,000-page report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s record by the Senate Intelligence Committee, based exclusively on agency records, rather than interviews, remains classified.
“As long as the debate continues, so too does the possibility that the United States could again engage in torture,” the report says.
The use of torture, the report concludes, has “no justification” and “damaged the standing of our nation, reduced our capacity to convey moral censure when necessary and potentially increased the danger to U.S. military personnel taken captive.” The task force found “no firm or persuasive evidence” that these interrogation methods produced valuable information that could not have been obtained by other means. While “a person subjected to torture might well divulge useful information,” much of the information obtained by force was not reliable, the report says.
Interrogation and abuse at the C.I.A.’s so-called black sites, the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba and war-zone detention centers, have been described in considerable detail by the news media and in declassified documents, though the Constitution Project report adds many new details.
It confirms a report by Human Rights Watch that one or more Libyan militants were waterboarded by the C.I.A., challenging the agency’s longtime assertion that only three Al Qaeda prisoners were subjected to the near-drowning technique. It includes a detailed account by Albert J. Shimkus Jr., then a Navy captain who ran a hospital for detainees at the Guantánamo Bay prison, of his own disillusionment when he discovered what he considered to be the unethical mistreatment of prisoners.
But the report’s main significance may be its attempt to assess what the United States government did in the years after 2001 and how it should be judged. The C.I.A. not only waterboarded prisoners, but slammed them into walls, chained them in uncomfortable positions for hours, stripped them of clothing and kept them awake for days on end.
The question of whether those methods amounted to torture is a historically and legally momentous issue that has been debated for more than a decade inside and outside the government. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel wrote a series of legal opinions from 2002 to 2005 concluding that the methods were not torture if used under strict rules; all the memos were later withdrawn. News organizations have wrestled with whether to label the brutal methods unequivocally as torture in the face of some government officials’ claims that they were not.
In addition, the United States is a signatory to the international Convention Against Torture, which requires the prompt investigation of allegations of torture and the compensation of its victims.
Like the still-secret Senate interrogation report, the Constitution Project study was initiated after President Obama decided in 2009 not to support a national commission to investigate the post-9/11 counterterrorism programs, as proposed by Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and others. Mr. Obama said then that he wanted to “look forward, not backward.” Aides have said he feared that his own policy agenda might get sidetracked in a battle over his predecessor’s programs.
The panel studied the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, in Afghanistan and Iraq, and at the C.I.A’s secret prisons. Staff members, including the executive director, Neil A. Lewis, a former reporter for The New York Times, traveled to multiple detention sites and interviewed dozens of former American and foreign officials, as well as former detainees.
Mr. Hutchinson, who served in the Bush administration as chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration and under secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said he “took convincing” on the torture issue. But after the panel’s nearly two years of research, he said he had no doubts about what the United States did.
“This has not been an easy inquiry for me, because I know many of the players,” Mr. Hutchinson said in an interview. He said he thought everyone involved in decisions, from Mr. Bush down, had acted in good faith, in a desperate effort to try to prevent more attacks.
“But I just think we learn from history,” Mr. Hutchinson said. “It’s incredibly important to have an accurate account not just of what happened but of how decisions were made.”
He added, “The United States has a historic and unique character, and part of that character is that we do not torture.”
The panel found that the United States violated its international legal obligations by engineering “enforced disappearances” and secret detentions. It questions recidivism figures published by the Defense Intelligence Agency for Guantánamo detainees who have been released, saying they conflict with independent reviews.
It describes in detail the ethical compromise of government lawyers who offered “acrobatic” advice to justify brutal interrogations and medical professionals who helped direct and monitor them. And it reveals an internal debate at the International Committee of the Red Cross over whether the organization should speak publicly about American abuses; advocates of going public lost the fight, delaying public exposure for months, the report finds.
Mr. Jones, a former ambassador to Mexico, noted that his panel called for the release of a declassified version of the Senate report and said he believed that the two reports, one based on documents and the other largely on interviews, would complement each other in documenting what he called a grave series of policy errors.
“I had not recognized the depths of torture in some cases,” Mr. Jones said. “We lost our compass.”
While the Constitution Project report covers mainly the Bush years, it is critical of some Obama administration policies, especially what it calls excessive secrecy. It says that keeping the details of rendition and torture from the public “cannot continue to be justified on the basis of national security” and urges the administration to stop citing state secrets to block lawsuits by former detainees.
The report calls for the revision of the Army Field Manual on interrogation to eliminate Appendix M, which it says would permit an interrogation for 40 consecutive hours, and to restore an explicit ban on stress positions and sleep manipulation.
The core of the report, however, may be an appendix: a detailed 22-page legal and historical analysis that explains why the task force concluded that what the United States did was torture. It offers dozens of legal cases in which similar treatment was prosecuted in the United States or denounced as torture by American officials when used by other countries.
The report compares the torture of detainees to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. “What was once generally taken to be understandable and justifiable behavior,” the report says, “can later become a case of historical regret.”
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Mike Bosak
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