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Today In Criminal Justice
Charlotte Mulls Curfew After 2nd Night of Damaging Protests
When Police Shoot, Should They Be Required to Render Aid?
Prosecutors: Reform Is Up to You
Gorging on ‘Ziti’: Ex-Aides to NY Gov. Face Corruption Charges
11 Women Allege Brutal Sexual Abuse by Mexican Police
Serial Rapist Sharper Nominated to Football Hall of Fame
Trump: 'Chicago Needs Stop and Frisk' to Battle Violence
New Evidence: Did St. Louis Cop Plant Gun After Shooting?
Justice Journalist Sarah Stillman Among 2016 MacArthur Fellows
Flagged Twice, NY-NJ Bombing Suspect Passed US Scrutiny
Poll: Floridians Favor Broad Criminal Justice Reforms
Top Story
Charlotte Mulls Curfew After 2nd Night of Damaging ProtestsThe streets of uptown Charlotte were calm early Thursday following a second night of protests that turned violent in the wake of Tuesday’s fatal police shooting of a black man, reports the Charlotte Observer. Mayor Jennifer Roberts said the city is considering a curfew, and North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency and deployed the National Guard and state troopers to help local police. The EpiCentre, an entertainment complex, sustained looting and significant damage Wednesday night. Vandals also struck nearby businesses, breaking doors and windows at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the convention center, the regional United Way headquarters as well as restaurants and hotels.
Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was fatally shot Tuesday by Officer Brentley Vinson, 26, who is also black. Police said Scott held a handgun as he got out of a car in an apartment complex but others claimed he was reading a book. Police said they found a gun but no book at the scene. Authorities said they were reviewing video from body and dashboard cameras from the deadly confrontation. Despite demands by some activists that footage to be publicly released, police said they would not do so during an active investigation. The U.S. Justice Department said its Community Relations Service, which responds to communities in crisis, will send staff members to Charlotte. Charlotte Observer When Police Shoot, Should They Be Required to Render Aid?The Washington Post and the New York Times explore the question of whether police officers who shoot people should be required to render immediate aid. The Post says the lack of medical attention to those shot by police has been a central grievance in protests over police shootings of black people over the last two years. It has arisen anew in the police shooting death in Tulsa last week of Terence Crutcher, 40, who lay on the ground for more than two minutes before officers gave medical attention. Policing experts say that while best practices dictate that aid should be provided as soon as officers no longer feel they are facing a threat of violence, officers’ judgment of when that is the case — especially in the moments after a violent incident — are likely to differ from that of the public.
“It is reasonable for people to assume that when it is safe for the officers to do so, that they would render first aid to somebody they’ve just shot,” Jim Bueermann, a former police chief who is president of the Police Foundation, told the Times. “But a lot of departments do not have policies that clearly articulate the officer’s responsibilities in that situation, and some have no policy at all.” This year, the Police Executive Research Forum issued 30 use-of-force policies that police departments should adopt, including a requirement that officers render first aid when they can. Officials and rank-and-file officers have raised objections to other recommendations on the list, but not to that one, said Chuck Wexler, the group’s executive director. Washington Post Prosecutors: Reform Is Up to YouThis month’s failure of proposed federal legislation to overhaul sentencing suggests that Congress is not the place to look for ways to reduce our prison population, writes TCR contributor William Kelly. Why not focus on those who put individuals behind bars in the first place? The Crime Report Gorging on 'Ziti': Ex-Aides to NY Gov. Face Corruption ChargesFederal corruption charges were announced Thursday against two former close aides to New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a senior state official and six others, in a devastating blow to the governor’s innermost circle and a repudiation of how his prized upstate economic development programs were managed, says the New York Times. The charges against the former aides, Joseph Percoco and Todd R. Howe, and the state official, Alain Kaloyeros, were the culmination of a long-running federal investigation into the Cuomo administration’s attempts to lure jobs and businesses to upstate New York’s limping economy by furnishing billions of dollars in state funds to developers from Buffalo to Albany. Howe is cooperating with the investigation, according to a 79-page criminal complaint.
The charges stemmed from “two overlapping criminal schemes involving bribery, corruption and fraud in the award of hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts and other official state benefits,” federal prosecutors said in the complaint. Percoco, who had served as Mr. Cuomo’s executive deputy secretary, is accused of soliciting and taking more than $315,000 in bribes between 2012 and 2016 from two companies. The bribes were arranged by Howe. In emails and other correspondence, Percoco and Howe referred to the bribes as “ziti,” according to the complaint. New York Times 11 Women Allege Brutal Sexual Abuse by Mexican PoliceInternational human rights officials are demanding an investigation into the brutal sexual assaults of 11 Mexican women by police during protests a decade ago — an inquiry that would take aim at President Enrique Peña Nieto, who was the governor in charge at the time of the attacks, says the New York Times. The demand is part of a multiyear examination by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights into abuses during a 2006 crackdown ordered by Peña Nieto on San Salvador Atenco, a town in Mexico State where demonstrators had taken over the central square. During the operations, which left two dead, more than 40 women were violently detained by the police, packed onto buses and sent to jail several hours away.
The case was brought by 11 women to the international commission, which found that the police tortured them sexually. The women — a mix of merchants, students and activists — were raped, beaten, penetrated with metal objects, robbed and humiliated, made to sing aloud to entertain the police. One was forced to perform oral sex on multiple officers. After the women were imprisoned, days passed before they were given proper medical examinations, the commission found. New York Times Serial Rapist Sharper Nominated to Football Hall of FameThe New York Times notes that on the list of nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame released last week, one name stands out: Darren Sharper. Should Sharper be elected, he is unlikely to turn up at the induction ceremony next summer. He is serving 20 years in prison for drugging and raping women. Sharper was a five-time Pro Bowl safety in a 14-year career with the Packers, the Vikings and the Saints. But his nomination stirred outrage because of his criminal history. That outrage was perhaps prompted by a misunderstanding of the rules for induction into the Hall.
Unlike baseball, there is no “character clause” in the rules for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Anyone can nominate someone for the football Hall of Fame — a news media member, a former player, even a fan. The only criteria is that the player played for five seasons, made one All-Pro team or Pro Bowl and has been retired for five full seasons. As a result, this year’s list is 94 names long. “The Hall of Fame does not nominate anyone,” Joe Horrigan, its executive vice president, said. “That is done by the public or official selectors. This is merely a list of names received by the Hall.” Horrigan would not say who, or how many people, nominated Sharper. It is extraordinarily unlikely that Sharper will be named to the Hall of Fame any time soon. But if he does make the cut, he will join an illustrious group of players that includes O. J. Simpson. New York Times Trump: 'Chicago Needs Stop and Frisk' to Battle ViolenceLamenting a “lack of spirit” between whites and blacks, Donald Trump encouraged racial unity on Thursday even as he called for one of the nation’s largest cities to adopt “stop and frisk” policing tactics that have been widely condemned as racial profiling by minority leaders, reports the Associated Press. The Republican presidential candidate, eager to blunt criticism that his campaign inspires racism, confronted racial tensions after police-involved shootings of black men in Oklahoma and North Carolina. Trump, as he has for much of his unorthodox presidential bid, offered a decidedly mixed message as he confronted the delicate issue.
He falsely suggested violence in Chicago is worse than that of Afghanistan, and endorsed a policing method that a federal judge said New York City had used unconstitutionally because of its overwhelming impact on minority residents. “I think Chicago needs stop and frisk,” Trump said. “When you have 3,000 people shot and so many people dying, I mean it’s worse than some of the places we’re hearing about like Afghanistan, you know, the war-torn nations.” The comments come as both presidential candidates court minority voters with Election Day less than seven weeks away. Associated Press New Evidence: Did St. Louis Cop Plant Gun After Shooting?A St. Louis police officer who killed a suspect has been accused of planting a gun in his victim’s car after new video of the shooting’s aftermath emerged,says the New York Daily News. Clips from police and surveillance footage obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch show what happened after officer Jason Stockley shot 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith in December 2011. Stockley was charged with murder earlier this year after prosecutors said that new evidence had emerged of the high speed chase that began with a suspected drug deal outside a chicken restaurant. Video and audio from inside the police car show the officer saying, “Going to kill this motherf—– don’t you know it” during the chase.
He and his partner eventually rammed Smith’s rented car with their SUV, and Stockley fired five rounds after walking up to the driver’s window. The officer said in a memo obtained by the Post-Dispatch that he saw a silver handgun in his hand when he was in his car at the restaurant, and that he believed Smith was reaching for a gun after the crash. He wrote that he found the silver handgun between the center console and passenger’s seat and unloaded it. However, court documents say that only Stockley’s DNA was found on the gun, and relatives of Smith say that it was planted in the car by the officer himself. After the shooting Stockley is seen returning his personal AK-47-style pistol, which he was not authorized to carry, back to his police SUV. New York Daily News Justice Journalist Sarah Stillman Among 2016 MacArthur FellowsMore than 30 journalists and non-fiction writers have been chosen as MacArthur Fellows since 1981. Sarah Stillman, a New Yorker staff writer who often explores issues of criminal justice and civil rights, is the latest to join that list, reports The Poynter Institute. She was among 23 men and women named Wednesday as MacArthur fellows. The fellowship comes with “a no-strings-attached $625,000 grant for their exceptional creativity and potential for future contributions to their fields,” according to the MacArthur Foundation. Stillman, 32, has written about such things as civil asset forfeiture, the lives of foreign workers on U.S. Army bases, and about what happens when juveniles are put on the sex-offender list.
Stillman told the Los Angeles Times she was “completely flabbergasted” to be selected. She said the grant will allow her to continue to focus on deep-dive investigative projects “where you can’t necessarily see the logical end. Because I think part of what’s so complex about these stories is they’re investigative precisely because they’re not there on the surface and it takes some digging, some confusion and some wandering to find them.” Editor’s Note: Stillman was among 27 reporting fellows selected in 2015 by the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice for a special year-long project focused on violence in America. The center is a partner in The Crime Report and Crime and Justice News.Poynter Institute Flagged Twice, NY-NJ Bombing Suspect Passed US ScrutinyWhen Ahmad Khan Rahami returned in March 2014 from a nearly yearlong trip to Pakistan, he was flagged by customs officials, who pulled him out for a secondary screening. Still concerned about his travel, they notified the National Targeting Center, a federal agency that assesses potential threats, reports the New York Times. It was one of thousands of such notifications every year, and a report on Rahami was passed along to the FBI and other intelligence agencies. Five months later, when Rahami’s father told the police after a domestic dispute that he was concerned about his son having terrorist sympathies, federal agents again examined his travel history. And again, despite Rahami’s now having been flagged twice for scrutiny, the concerns were not found to warrant a deeper inquiry, one of the law enforcement officials said. Ahmad Rahami was not interviewed by federal agents.
But now, the travel history of Rahami, who is accused of carrying out bombings in New York and New Jersey last weekend, has become a focus of investigators, a subject made all the more urgent by details contained in a notebook that suggests he drew inspiration largely from the Islamic State. Rahami cites a founding member of the Islamic State who called on Muslims around the world to take up whatever arms they could find and spill the blood of nonbelievers. The assessment of Rahami by the F.B.I. began in August 2014, and it once again reviewed the report by the National Targeting Center. The center was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to function as an intelligence analysis agency within the Department of Homeland Security. New York Times Poll: Floridians Favor Broad Criminal Justice ReformsFlorida lawmakers should take a comprehensive approach to reforming the state’s criminal justice system, according to a new poll by the James Madison Institute and the Charles Koch Institute. WFSU reports that a survey of 1,500 people showed that nearly 75 percent of Floridians agree criminal justice reform is important and that prisons are too costly. Sal Nuzzo of James Madison Institute said most respondents also agree ex-felons should be able to get access to jobs.
Nuzzo said “the public is very much in favor of lowering those barriers to entry and getting these folks employed and becoming productive members of society.” Most poll participants also agreed prisons should focus more on rehabilitation than punishment and that too many non-violent offenders are in prison. The poll also highlighted the need for continued juvenile justice reforms.WFSU | |
| | On every business day, The Crime Report (TCR) and Criminal Justice Journalists (CJJ) provide a summary of the nation's top crime and justice news stories with Internet links commentary, and New & Notable research in the field. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the Langeloth Foundation and the Urban Institute. Today's report was prepared by David Krajicek and Alice Popovici. Please send comments or questions to alice@thecrimereport.org. | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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