D.C. sniper set for execution

D.C. sniper set for execution
Execution set for D.C. sniper

The U.S. Supreme Court denied John Allen Muhammad's last-ditch effort to save his life. Now, one of the "Beltway snipers" whose sharpshooting spree killed 10 people in the Washington, D.C., area is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday.

His teenage partner in the 2002 wave of terror, Lee Boyd Malvo, laughed as he confessed gruesome details of the slayings.

Random victims were felled by single long-distance shots. A grocery store parking lot, lawns and a craft store all were targets. Four victims were shot doing this everyday task. A middle school student was shot.

False leads led to widespread fear of these vehicles.

Clues on an occult card baffled police, but more notes - along with a phone call from a priest - narrowed the search. This woman may have been a key target all along.

The two were caught, courtesy of an alert truck driver.

Muhammad had been a skilled Army sharpshooter, and victims were shot through an opening in the trunk of their Chevy Caprice.

Families received a $2.5 million settlement in a civil suit against this company. Some family members of victims plan to attend the execution.

Maryland Governor Cuts Millions From Budget

The Maryland Governor today cut millions of dollars from the state budget, including millions of dollars to Wicomico County. This could have negative impacts on the ability of agencies to fund their personnel. However, the last thing we need to do, especially in a bad economy is cut funding to law enforcement agencies or law enforcement officers. Because when the economy gets bad, people get bad. The last thing we need is less cops on the street.

Racist e-mail sparks questions on free speech, image of the police

08/02/2009
Racist e-mail sparks questions on free speech, image of the police
By Maria Cramer Boston Globe


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Related Articles:Police departments deal with 'legacy' of race issues'No evidence' that racism is a problem in police forces Related Resource:News report: Obama's comments spark firestorm

BOSTON — Until this week, Officer Justin L. Barrett was a young Boston patrolman with no record of misconduct, who had served his country in Iraq and once tackled an armed man inside the Mattapan police station where he worked. Now, Mayor Thomas M. Menino has called him a cancer and said the 36-year-old should be fired for writing an e-mail comparing a black professor to a “jungle monkey.’’ To many of the city’s black leaders, he is a painful reminder of racial tensions that still exist in the city and within the Police Department. To high-ranking police officials, he is another obstacle in their effort to gain and keep the trust of those in minority neighborhoods, where most of the worst crimes occur. “This kind of attitude will tar all of our efforts, set us back 30 years,’’ said the Rev. Jeffrey Brown, head of the Boston TenPoint Coalition, which works with police to stop gang violence.

Yesterday, Boston police held a press conference at headquarters, inviting dozens of black community leaders and members of the police command staff to stand with Commissioner Edward F. Davis as he denounced Barrett’s comments, announced he had moved to fire the officer of two years, and promised a sweeping investigation that would try to uncover whether other officers responded to the e-mail and agreed. It was a dramatic response to the comments of one patrolman, but to the officers and community leaders who read his e-mail, it was vital to make such a stand. “This type of venomous rhetoric is severely damaging,’’ Davis said. “These racist opinions and feelings have no place in this department or in our society and will not be tolerated.’’

Civil liberties lawyers said this could be a tricky case for police. As a police officer, Barrett cannot speak as freely as the average citizen, but he may have protection from termination under the First Amendment right to free speech. Barrett was apparently not on duty when he sent the e-mail from a personal address. “You don’t surrender your First Amendment rights when you’re out of uniform, and that’s the key,’’ said Harvey Silverglate, a criminal defense and civil liberties lawyer. “I think it’s a close case. My guess is the Police Department would be able to proceed against him on the basis that it showed a lack of qualification to be a police officer, and he could be fired. Sometimes, there are really two sides to an issue.’’

Barrett, appearing last night on CNN’s “Larry King Live,’’ was contrite, offering his “sincerest apology . . . over the controversial e-mail I authored. . . . I failed to think through the perception others may have based upon what I wrote.’’ He denied being a racist and said he “did not intend any racial bigotry, harm, or prejudice in my words.’’ When King asked him where the explosive language came from, he said he did not know and insisted he treats everyone with dignity.
Barrett’s lawyer, Peter Marano, who also appeared on the telecast, called the Police Department’s move out of proportion. In an earlier interview, he said, “We have police officers who do heroin, cocaine and keep their jobs; beat their wives, keep their jobs. It strikes me as there is a whole set of different standards. The issue is that it’s a private e-mail from a private computer.’’

Last week, Barrett, the married father of a toddler, sent the e-mail to Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham in response to her July 21 piece about the arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Barrett criticized the column, which was sympathetic to Gates and said that Gates had behaved like a “banana-eating jungle monkey’’ when Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley responded to his home for a report of a break-in. Gates was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct, a charge that was quickly dropped. Barrett copied the e-mail to several friends and colleagues, including members of the National Guard, where he is a captain. On July 23, the National Guard learned of the e-mail and suspended Barrett pending an investigation to see whether he should be disciplined. He does not face military criminal charges, but the e-mail “violated Army values and policies,’’ said Major James Sahady, a spokesman for the National Guard.

On Monday, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case, furious Boston patrol officers who learned of the e-mail reported it to a sergeant detective in Mattapan, who then reported the e-mail to Captain James Claiborne, Barrett’s supervisor. Davis learned of the missive on Tuesday and hours later stripped Barrett of his gun and badge. A hearing will be scheduled in the next week to 10 days to decide whether to terminate Barrett, Davis said. Barrett has the right to appeal any punishment to the state Civil Service Commission. Davis tried to distance the department from the e-mail, saying it reflected the “racist opinions and feelings’’ of one individual. “We will not allow the unacceptable actions of one member to define who we are as a police organization,’’ he said. But Larry Ellison, a Boston detective and the president of the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers, said the incident reflects a subtly racist culture that permeates the department. He pointed to several incidents in the last year, including a white officer who urinated in the water bottle of a black female officer and another who posted an article, “Slavery: Best Thing that Ever Happened to Blacks.’’

Yesterday, Ellison and other officials learned that someone had scrawled graffiti in the bathroom of a Charlestown police station. The toilet has two buttons, one for flushing liquids and another for flushing solid waste. Next to the buttons, someone had written Deval Patrick and Barack Obama. “This is not an isolated incident,’’ Ellison said of the e-mail.

The Crapper has recently received word that 8 departments in the state of Maryland have received the COPS Grant. The COPS grant is a program that was created to the commitment to hire or to keep approximately 5,000 career law enforcement jobs through the COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP). It is one of the targets of the 10-point Roadmap to Recovery program of the Reinvestment Act, which was discussed at President Obama’s June 8, 2009 Cabinet meeting.

The COPS Hiring Recovery Program grant award announcement occurred on July 28, 2009 and here are the results for Maryland:

Baltimore Police Department

Total Number of Officers Awarded = 50
Total Amount for Pay and Benefits = $10,131,050

Bladensburg PD

Total Number of Officers Awarded = 1
Total Amount for Pay and Benefits = $221,672

Cambridge Police Department

Total Number of Officers Awarded = 2
Total Amount for Pay and Benefits = $356,212

Laurel City PD

Total Number of Officers Awarded =3
Total Amount for Pay and Benefits=$726,411

Prince George's County PD

Total Number of Officers Awarded = 50
Total Amount for Pay and Benefits= $10,630,950

Princess Anne PD

Total Number of Officers Awarded = 1
Total Amount for Pay and Benefits= $187,437

Riverdale Police Department

Total Number of Officers Awarded = 1
Total Amount for Pay and Benefits = $203,727

Salisbury City PD

Total Number of Officers Awarded = 4
Total Amount of Pay and Benefits = $795,068

State Total:

Total Departments awarded Officers - 8 / Total Officers Awarded - 112

Total Funding given to Maryland Law Enforcement for Officers = $23,252,527

Grand Total:

Total departments awarded Officers -1046 / Total Officers Awarded - 4699

Total amount given across the Country -$999,955,434




The purpose of the COPS Hiring Recovery Program is to address the full-time sworn officer needs of state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies nationwide. CHRP provides funding directly to law enforcement agencies to hire new and/or rehire career law enforcement officers in an effort to create and preserve jobs, and to increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts. Up to $1 billion in grant funding was appropriated for this initiative through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

CHRP grants provide 100 percent funding for approved entry-level salaries and benefits for 3 years (36 months) for newly-hired, full-time sworn officer positions (including filling existing unfunded vacancies) or for rehired officers who have been laid off, or are scheduled to be laid off on a future date, as a result of local budget cuts. Any additional costs above the approved entry-level salaries and fringe benefits are the responsibility of the grantee agency.

Nearly 7,300 CHRP applications requesting over 39,000 officers and $8.3 billion in funds were submitted to the COPS Office. Up to $1 billion in grant funding was appropriated for this initiative through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Funding selections were based on a variety of factors, including statutory mandates that govern how CHRP and other COPS Office hiring funds are to be allocated, as well as each applicant's fiscal health, UCR-reported crime, and community policing plans. Many applicant requests were reduced because of the high demand for this year's funding, with the goal of distributing CHRP funding across a wider range of agencies.

Here at the Crapper we would like to give a crapper salute to those departments in Maryland who took the time to apply for the grant and who recognized the importance of bringing more Law Enforcement Officers to the Street to fight crime.

To those lonely eight departments in Maryland, we commend you on your applications, since so few were approved and give you a heart felt congratulations

Gates Arrest Radio Traffic

Listen how professional the Sgt. is on the radio and how you can hear Gates yelling in the background.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Bring Your Rubbers!

The general forecast is for rain all week, either isolated thunderstorms or scattered thunderstorms. What's the difference anyways? If it's an isolated thunderstorm then to the person under it, wouldn't it be the same as a scattered thunderstorm? Anyways, in case you are wondering, "rubbers" as they were called were rubber overshoes that people wore when going out in the rain. Rubbers were especially popular to wear over wingtip shoes and are still available today, online. Rubbers were available prior to waterproof shoes being invented.

AOL Poll on Gates Arrest

Do you fault anyone for the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr.?

Yes, Gates
65%

Yes, both
18%

Yes, the police officer
9%

No
8%

Our Assessment of the Obama Comments about Cambridge Police

As you may know, we have posted national media articles on the comments made by President Obama in reference to an arrest made by a Cambridge, MA police Sgt.

In summery of the incident...

The Sgt. made an arrest for disorderly conduct of a black professor of Harvard who is close friends of President Obama. The president made the comment that the Cambridge police "acted stupidly" affecting the arrest.

The Sgt. received a call for a B&E in progress, upon arrival the professor refused to identify himself initially and called the police Sgt. a racist, following him from the house, even insulting the police officer's mother. The Sgt. maintains he made a good arrest while the professor maintains that the police officer is a rouge policeman. The professor also stated, "The vulnerability of poor minorities in America". Bear in mind that that the professor is not poor by a longshot going on to stating that he has "very valuable art" inside of his residence.

A neighbor of the professor confirmed the professor's behavior was excessive and insulting. The Sgt. gave an on camera interview about the incident. The department's administration stands by the officer. The officer is also a police instructor for racial profiling.

The WicBury Crapper assessment...

Of course, there is always two sides to every story. From the way the Sgt. described the incident he was only attempting to identify the professor as being a resident of the property, which he was able to do. The Sgt. was immediately met with hostility and anger and was even provoked to arrest while the professor followed the Sgt. out of the house. The Sgt. gave the professor several warnings to discontinue his course of conduct.

The comments made by President Obama were plainly out of line, especially commenting on a local incident involving a personal friend of his. The professor unfortunately sees racial profiling everywhere. There was a legitimate call for service at the professors house indicating a possible burglary in progress. The Sgt. responded and was met with hostility by the professor, who apparently has a bad view of white police officers. So, the real question here is who is racist? Is it the white police officer, who is a racial profiling instructor at the police academy, who received a valid call for service to investigate a possible crime in progress or is it the black professor who confronts the police officer. The professor even followed the officer out of the house yelling at him, calling the officer a racist, and even at one point said, "I'll see your mother out there (on the porch)."

This is not an incident of racial profiling by the police. This is an incident of a professor, who thinks he is too important to be bothered by the police and who has friends in high places, wanting to berate the police. The professor is programmed to see racial issues everywhere, even when a cop responds to his house, to investigate a burglary and protect his residence. When asking for identification this sets the professor off, yelling that he will call the police Chief, and every other type of nonsense. You can even see the professor yelling while being arrested and the Sgt. advising him to "calm down". There is also a black police officer in the foreground of the picture. According to the associated press, "A black police officer who was at Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s home when the black Harvard scholar was arrested says he fully supports how his white fellow officer handled the situation."

Sgt. Leon Lashley says Gates was probably tired and surprised when Sgt. James Crowley demanded identification from him as officers investigated a report of a burglary. Lashley says Gates' reaction to Crowley was "a little bit stranger than it should have been."
Asked if Gates should have been arrested, Lashley said supported Crowley "100 percent."Unfortunately, some people use race as a crutch and soap box for themselves. This professor is that type of person, similar to Al Sharpton, a well known and documented race hustler.

All of the black police officers that we have known throughout the years have been dedicated members of each respective department and function with a white majority of officers in order to protect the public (as we discussed in our article about black policing).

It is unfortunate when incidents such as these demonstrate to us as a society that a person, who is insulting and berating a uniformed law enforcement officer and acting in a plainly disorderly manner, can stand on a soap box and scream racism. It is also plainly sad that our president, who is of all people, sided with a personal friend without knowing the facts of an incident and stated that the Cambridge police acted "Stupidly". What's stupidly is Obama's comments which has insulted the integrity of a police officer with a exemplary record of conduct. Incidents like this fuel falsely laid distrust and suspicion of law enforcement; making all cops job more difficult and dangerous.

What are your thoughts?

Mass. cop who arrested black scholar is racial profiling expert

07/23/2009
Mass. cop who arrested black scholar is racial profiling expert

By Denise Lavoie Associated Press

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The white police sergeant criticized by President Barack Obama for arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his Massachusetts home is a police academy expert on understanding racial profiling.

Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley has taught a class about racial profiling for five years at the Lowell Police Academy after being hand-picked for the job by former police Commissioner Ronny Watson, who is black, said Academy Director Thomas Fleming. "I have nothing but the highest respect for him as a police officer. He is very professional and he is a good role model for the young recruits in the police academy," Fleming told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The course, called "Racial Profiling," teaches about different cultures that officers could encounter in their community "and how you don't want to single people out because of their ethnic background or the culture they come from," Fleming said. Obama has said the Cambridge officers "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates last week when they responded to his house after a woman reported a suspected break-in. Crowley, 42, has maintained he did nothing wrong and has refused to apologize, as Gates has demanded.

Crowley responded to Gates' home near Harvard University last week to investigate a report of a burglary and demanded Gates show him identification. Police say Gates at first refused, flew into a rage and accused the officer of racism. Gates was charged with disorderly conduct. The charge was dropped Tuesday. Gates' supporters maintain his arrest was a case of racial profiling. Officers were called to the home by a woman who said she saw "two black males with backpacks" trying to break in the front door. Gates has said he arrived home from an overseas trip and the door was jammed. Obama was asked about the arrest of Gates, who is his friend, at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night.

"I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And No. 3 - what I think we know separate and apart from this incident - is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."

In radio interviews Thursday morning, Crowley maintained he followed procedure. "I support the president of the United States 110 percent. I think he was way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts as he himself stated before he made that comment," Crowley told WBZ-AM. "I guess a friend of mine would support my position, too." Crowley did not immediately respond to messages left Thursday by the AP. The Cambridge police department scheduled a news conference for later Thursday. Gates has said he was "outraged" by the arrest. He said the white officer walked into his home without his permission and only arrested him as the professor followed him to the porch, repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number because he was unhappy over his treatment.

"This isn't about me; this is about the vulnerability of black men in America," Gates said. He said the incident made him realize how vulnerable poor people and minorities are "to capricious forces like a rogue policeman, and this man clearly was a rogue policeman." The president said federal officials need to continue working with local law enforcement "to improve policing techniques so that we're eliminating potential bias." Fellow officers, black and white, say Crowley is well-liked and respected on the force. Crowley was a campus police officer at BrandeisUniversity in July 1993 when he administered CPR trying to save the life of former Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis. Lewis, who was black, collapsed and died during an off-season workout. Gov. Deval Patrick, who is black, said he was troubled and upset over the incident. Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons, who also is black, has said she spoke with Gates and apologized on behalf of the city, and a statement from the city called the July 16 incident "regrettable and unfortunate."

The mayor refused Thursday to comment on the president's remarks.Police supporters charge that Gates, director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, was responsible for his own arrest by overreacting. Black students and professors at Harvard have complained for years about racial profiling by Cambridge and campus police. Harvard commissioned an independent committee last year to examine the university's race relations after campus police confronted a young black man who was using tools to remove a bike lock. The man worked at Harvard and owned the bike.

Obama remark on black scholar's arrest angers cops

07/24/2009

Obama remark on black scholar's arrest angers cops
Interview with Arresting Officer, Sgt. James Crowley


PoliceOne's Editor's Note: You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. The President is now backpedaling from his woefully uninformed comments made about a fine officer from Massachusetts. Calling Sergeant James Crowley on the phone and saying to the press that Crowley is "a fine man" rings hollow today because of the knee-jerk reaction we heard on Wednesday. Police work is infinitely more complex than a 10-second sound-bite, and the President's comments are just the most recent, most visible evidence that a lack of understanding about law enforcement permeates our society. I and my team here at PoliceOne hope that something good can come of this mess. We hope that some number of the public take this opportunity to at least try to understand the complexity of police work, and appreciate the fine service performed by American Law Enforcement every day.
— Doug Wyllie, PoliceOne Senior Editor

By Melissa Trujillo Associated Press

Related Video Interview with Sgt. Crowley about Harvard scholar's arrest

BOSTON — Many police officers across the country have a message for President Barack Obama: Get all the facts before criticizing one of our own. Obama's public criticism that Cambridge officers "acted stupidly" when they arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. could make it harder for police to work with people of color, some officers said Thursday.It could even set back the progress in race relations that helped Obama become the nation's first African-American president, they said.

"What we don't need is public safety officials across the country second-guessing themselves," said David Holway, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which represents 15,000 public safety officials around the country. "The president's alienated public safety officers across the country with his comments."

Gates was arrested July 16 by Sgt. James Crowley, who was first to respond to the home the renowned black scholar rents from Harvard, after a woman reported seeing two black men trying to force open the front door. Gates said he had to shove the door open because it was jammed.

He was charged with disorderly conduct after police said he yelled at the white officer, accused him of racial bias and refused to calm down after Crowley demanded Gates show him identification to prove he lived in the home. The charge was dropped Tuesday, but Gates has demanded an apology, calling his arrest a case of racial profiling. Obama was asked about Gates' arrest at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night and began his response by saying Gates was a friend and he didn't have all the facts.

"But I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And No. 3 - what I think we know separate and apart from this incident - is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact." On Thursday, the White House tried to calm the hubbub over Obama's comments by saying Obama was not calling the officer stupid. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama felt that "at a certain point the situation got far out of hand" at Gates' home.

Crowley said he still supports the president, who attended Harvard Law School in Cambridge and garnered 88 percent of the vote there in last year's presidential election. "I think he was way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts as he himself stated before he made that comment," Crowley told WBZ-AM. Cambridge police Commissioner Robert Haas said Obama's comments hurt the agency.

"My reponse is that this department is deeply pained," Haas said at a news conference Thursday. "It takes its professional pride seriously." Fellow law enforcement officers across the country sided with Crowley. "To make the remark about 'stupidly' is maybe not the right adverb," said Santa Monica, Calif., police Sgt. Jay Trisler, who has been in law enforcement for 24 years. "When an incident occurs with a police department, we're not quick to judge."
He lamented negative opinions being directed at police.

"It's unfortunate because there are so many other police cases where an elected official has made a comment that wasn't correct, comments that could have been better worded," he said. "Look at Rodney King. It's a high-profile case, and everyone is entitled to an opinion." Obama's comments could diminish work done by law enforcement to address racial issues, said James Preston, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Florida State Lodge. "By reducing all contact between law enforcement and the public to the color of their skin or ethnicity is, in fact, counterproductive to improving relationships," Preston said. "To make such an off-handed comment about a subject without benefit of the facts, in such a public forum, hurts police/community relations and is a setback to all of the years of progress."
Other officers credited the president with using Gates' arrest to highlight the ongoing national problem of racial profiling.

"It wouldn't make any difference whether it was Barack Obama or John McCain. It's appropriate that the leader of this country should still recognize there are still issues in this country in regards to race," said Lt. Charles Wilson, chairman of the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers Inc. and a 38-year veteran of law enforcement. "This is an issue that occurs in every single place in this country, so it is not a local issue." Trisler said Obama's remarks ultimately would not affect how police officers do their jobs. Police have weathered problems before - from the King beating to local corruption cases - and still find ways to work with their communities.

"I think police officers are going to be professional enough not to be affected by his comments," Trisler said. "Not even getting into the race issues, police officers are professional here in Santa Monica, regardless of when a comment comes from an elected official. We're going to do our job for the community."