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Today In Criminal Justice
'No Silver Linings' in Trump's Anti-Immigration Agenda
One Hostage Dead in DE Prison Protest; Inmates Cite Trump Policies
Trump Backs Intervention With Chicago Gang Leaders
St. Louis, Not Chicago, Is the Per Capita Murder Capital
DOJ Committed to Baltimore Police Reform Under Trump
S.F. Police Halt Collaboration with FBI on Terrorism
Union-Backed Vitiello to Head U.S. Border Patrol
Dems Can’t Defeat Gorsuch; What Should They Seek?
Scott Schubert Seems Set as Pittsburgh Police Chief
Kasich Refuses To Increase $1B Spending on Opioids
Feds Say Orlando Gunman’s Wife Helped Scout Targets
Alcohol Abuse Linked to Gun Crimes in New Study
Oklahoma Sheriff to Retire Amid Medical Bill Dispute
Court Delays Texas Execution Over Lawyer Issue
Wilmington, De., Shootings Up; Ramsey Criticized
Top Story
'No Silver Linings' in Trump's Anti-Immigration AgendaCould Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants get any harsher? John Jay College researcher Daniel Stageman, in an analysis for TCR, predicts the Trump administration will double down on efforts to use local police to enforce immigration laws in selected jurisdictions where the political climate is already unfriendly towards immigrants. The Crime Report One Hostage Dead in DE Prison Protest; Inmates Cite Trump PoliciesDelaware prison officials say one corrections employee who was taken hostage is dead and a second is alert and talking after authorities entered a building at the state’s largest prison, the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center, where inmates had taken staff members hostage, reports the Associated Press. Inmates took four corrections department workers hostage yesterday at the prison, located in Smyrna, 15 miles north of the state capital of Dover, prompting a lockdown of all Delaware prisons. The inmates released one staffer in the afternoon and another last night.
The hostage-takers demanded prison reforms and better living conditions, reports the Wilmington News Journal. Demands relayed to the newspaper by phone from people who said their relatives were being held hostage included “improper sentencing orders. Status sheets being wrong. Oppression towards the inmates.” A voice on one call relating inmate demands said, “We’re trying to explain the reasons for doing what we’re doing. Donald Trump. Everything that he did. All the things that he’s doing now. We know the institution is going to change for the worse. We got demands that you need to pay attention to, that you need to listen to and you need to let them know. Education, we want education first and foremost. We want a rehabilitation program that works for everybody. We want the money to be allocated so we can know exactly what is going on in the prison, the budget.” Delaware has a new prison director, Perry Phelps, who was confirmed two weeks ago. Associated Press Trump Backs Intervention With Chicago Gang LeadersAt a meeting yesterday with African-American leaders, President Trump again talked about Chicago violence, saying if city officials don’t take steps, “we’re going to solve the problem for them,” and suggesting that direct intervention with street-gang leaders might be a good idea, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. “Because we’re going to have to do something,” Trump said, “What’s happening in Chicago should not be happening in this country.” Trump said violence in the city was “totally out of control.”
Trump’s remark came in reply to Darrell Scott, an Ohio pastor who campaigned for Trump, was on Trump’s transition team, and who was one of the clergy who participated in the National Prayer Service Trump attended the day after the inauguration. Scott, Senior Pastor of New Spirit Revival Center Ministries, said he was talking to members of “top gangs” in Chicago who wanted a “sit down” to discuss how to “get that body count down” in return for “social programs.” “It’s a great idea,” Trump said about a possible meeting involving gang leaders. Scott attended a meeting Trump hosted that was described by the White House as an “African-American History Month listening session.” Later yesterday, Scott said he had meant to say he spoke to “former gang thugs” rather than current ones. Chicago Sun-Times St. Louis, Not Chicago, Is the Per Capita Murder CapitalDespite attracting wide attention to its grim and grinding violence – including President Trump’s denunciations of its “carnage” – Chicago is not the U.S. murder capital, reports RealClearInvestigations. In fact, it’s not even close. St. Louis has held that dubious distinction for three years running, reaching nearly 60 murders per 100,000 residents last year – more than double Chicago’s rate despite the latter’s nation-leading raw total of 762, its most killings in 18 years. Following closely behind St. Louis in per capita murder rates are Baltimore (51.1 per 100,000), New Orleans (45.2), and Detroit (44.6). Chicago, with a rate of 28, was back in eighth place behind Cleveland, Newark, and Memphis.
Even more surprising than the level of carnage in St. Louis is the primary cause. Despite its proximity to riot-scarred Ferguson, authorities say the violence is not mainly due to the so-called “Ferguson Effect”–racially charged police-community tensions reducing cooperation and allowing crime to spiral out of control. Instead, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson lays the blame on something farther afield – Mexican drug cartels and the heroin trade. The Trace, a blog on gun violence, says St. Louis’ Greater Ville neighborhood posted a homicide rate three times higher than the deadliest country in the world: Honduras. The cartel violence is characterized by homicide spikes where two or more cartels are competing for influence and customers. Real Clear Investigations DOJ Committed to Baltimore Police Reform Under TrumpEven though the Donald Trump presidency has begun, the U.S. Department of Justice assured a federal judge in Baltimore yesterday that it remains fully committed to sweeping police reforms in the consent decree the city agreed to under the Obama administration, the Baltimore Sun reports. “It endures across shifting political winds,” said Timothy Mygatt, DOJ deputy chief of special litigation for civil rights. “It allows there to be surety for all parties involved that there’s going to be consistency.” Mayor Catherine Pugh and attorneys for the city said they were equally dedicated to the deal, despite the potentially high cost.
Questions from U.S. District Judge James Bredar reflected concerns from reform advocates that the Trump administration or the city would try to back out of the deal. The judge said the court does not “operate on a four-year cycle,” but on long-standing laws, and that he would be hesitant to issue a court order approving the deal without commitments from both parties to seeing it through. “I want to make sure those lines are crystal clear before we launch into this marriage,” he said. Later, he said there was a problem with the marriage analogy: once the consent decree is signed, there is “no opportunity for divorce.” The consent decree follows a lengthy investigation by the Justice Department into police practices in the city. Baltimore Sun S.F. Police Halt Collaboration with FBI on TerrorismSan Francisco’s police will suspend the department’s much-criticized collaboration with FBI counterterrorism efforts, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The announcement was celebrated by civil liberties and immigration advocates who have long called for stricter oversight of local participation in federal enforcement. The move comes as San Francisco disengaged from the president’s directives on immigration and the treatment of Muslims. The Joint Terrorism Task Force, which has two full-time city officers assigned to it, was established in 2007, when the police entered into an agreement with the FBI that authorized intelligence-gathering by San Francisco officers of people engaged in First Amendment activities such as religious services, protests and political assemblies.
Advocates wrote to the Police Commission last month, raising concerns that the department would follow federal law over local ordinances such as San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy, which limits city employees’ cooperation with federal immigration agents. Under the Trump administration, they said it is more important than ever that San Francisco officers commit to enforcing San Francisco policies. Police officials said they suspended participation in the Joint Terrorism Task Force because the memo of understanding on it was reaching its 10th year. Under the City Charter, all contracts over 10 years must be approved by the Board of Supervisors. Officials said they were planning to work with the Police Commission to update guidelines on investigating First Amendment activities. San Francisco Chronicle Union-Backed Vitiello to Head U.S. Border PatrolRonald Vitiello, a career Border Patrol official who was backed by the agents’ union , has been named to head the agency less than a week after his predecessor resigned under pressure, reports the Associated Press. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Vitiello was appointed at a time when President Donald Trump has pledged to erect a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico and add 5,000 agents from the current level of 20,000. The National Border Patrol Council — an early backer of Trump’s presidential bid — supported Vitiello for the job and pushed for the ouster of his predecessor, Mark Morgan, who resigned last week at the request of the new administration. Morgan left seven months after being named the first outsider to run the agency since its creation in 1924.
Vitiello, most recently executive assistant commissioner for operations support, was acting Border Patrol chief when Morgan was appointed last year and had been considered a leading contender for the job then. He joined the Border Patrol more than 30 years ago and served as deputy chief in the administration of President Obama. Brandon Judd, the union president, said before Trump took office that Morgan never had the support of agents. “(Vitiello) and I do not see eye to eye on a great, great many things but we were always able to keep it respectful, always,” Judd said. “Morgan and I have not been able to do that.” Associated Press Dems Can’t Defeat Gorsuch; What Should They Seek?Senate Democrats are unlikely to block President Trump’s nomination of appeals judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Filibustering Gorsuch would likely cause the Republicans to do away with the filibuster forever—the so-called “nuclear option”—and to confirm the nominee by a simple majority vote. What could a victory look like for Democrats? Three markers of possible success come to mind, write Dahlia Lithwick and Neil Siegel in Slate. They say victory would require making an effective case to the public that any nominee not named Merrick Garland is per se politically illegitimate. This should be the Democrats’ turn to appoint a justice. Senate Republicans, following candidate Trump’s instruction to “delay, delay, delay,” stole this nomination from President Obama even though he had nearly a year to go in his term, say Lithwick and Siegel. They write that Democrats should insist that Garland, not the late Justice Antonin Scalia, provides the baseline against which to measure Gorsuch’s ideological reasonableness.
Given Trump’s explicit promises and pre-election pledges of constitutional litmus tests, a Democratic victory would require the nominee to rebut the ongoing presumption that he possesses the exact same legal views promised by the president who appointed him. For example, would he protect even more gun possession in more places and dismantle reasonable gun regulations that states and cities have enacted to protect the public? Finally, Lithwick and Siegel say, victory in these hearings would include Democrats explaining to anti-Trump protesters that “they must vote around the issue of the Supreme Court with the same passion with which they have rallied for justice.” Slate Scott Schubert Seems Set as Pittsburgh Police ChiefPittsburgh’s City Council voiced robust support for acting Police Chief Scott Schubert, who appears poised to assume the job permanently next week, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Your history speaks for you. Your integrity clearly speaks for you,” Bruce Kraus, the council president, told Schubert in a confirmation hearing. Schubert, 50, took the acting role in November at Mayor Bill Peduto’s request. Cameron McLay resigned after two years on the job.
“I just think there’s a lot more we can do to help better the department, with better training and equipment, ensuring that we have a diverse department that reflects our city,” Schubert told council. He addressed subjects ranging from the opioid epidemic and departmental policy to public transparency. Schubert said his immediate goals include bolstering officer morale and reducing violence. Schubert most recently served as an assistant chief overseeing police operations. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Kasich Refuses To Increase $1B Spending on OpioidsOhio Gov. John Kasich stood firm yesterday against charges that the state is not doing enough to tackle the nation’s leading number of drug-overdose deaths, principally from opioids, the Columbus Dispatch reports. Noting that his budget proposal maintains the state’s $1 billion-a-year investment to battle drug addiction – mainly pain pills, heroin and other opiates – Kasich said Ohio “is doing more than any state in the country.” The state is giving local communities “the tools, but they need to use them,” Kasich said during an Associated Press conference. “The drug problem is not going to get fixed from the top down.”
Legislative leaders from both parties and those on the front lines of Ohio’s drug war say more is needed than flat funding. “It’s certainly different than the last budget that we started with, when we had sufficient funds to do extra things with,” said Ryan Smith, House finance chairman. “We’ve got to get creative and innovative on how we can do some things.” Smith said the House hopes to build a comprehensive plan to “address Ohio’s No. 1 problem.” House Minority Leader Fred Strahorn said more needs to be invested in drug treatment. “It’s going to take some serious resources to combat this epidemic,” he said, adding that the proposed budget falls woefully short. “We can come up with some great strategies, but if we can’t fund it, we are going to continue to battle a very serious epidemic.” Ohio, the nation’s seventh-largest state, led the nation in the number of overdose deaths in 2015. An average of eight Ohioans died from overdoses every day, more than double the number in 2009. Officials expect to see overdose deaths set another record in 2016, surpassing the 3,050 of 2015. Columbus Dispatch Feds Say Orlando Gunman’s Wife Helped Scout TargetsA federal judge has declined to release the widow of the man who killed 49 people at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub after prosecutors said she accompanied her husband on scouting trips for potential targets that included the Disney Springs shopping complex, reports the Associated Press. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu in Oakland said she wanted a psychiatric evaluation of Noor Salman before deciding whether to release her pending a trial on charges of supporting her husband’s attack and then lying to investigators about it. Salman, 31, has pleaded not guilty.
Federal authorities arrested Salman last month at her mother’s home in suburban San Francisco, where Salman moved with her 4-year-old son after her husband, Omar Mateen, killed 49 and wounded at least 68 others on June 12 at the Pulse nightclub. Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State during the attack before police shot and killed him. Federal prosecutor Sara Sweeney said Mateen asked Salman whether attacking the Disney site would have a bigger impact than attacking a nightclub. Sweeney said that in addition to accompanying her husband on scouting trips, Salman watched him leave their apartment with a gun and a backpack full of ammunition on the night of the shooting. Sweeney said Salman told investigators that “I knew when he left he was going to commit the attack.” Associated Press Alcohol Abuse Linked to Gun Crimes in New StudyGun owners who have been convicted of an alcohol-related offense, such as driving under the influence or drunk and disorderly conduct, are up to five times as likely to be arrested for a violent or firearm-related crime than those who have not, says new research reported by The Trace. The study from the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis found that a conviction for a crime involving alcohol is a much greater indication of future violent behavior than a conviction for almost any other offense, including other violent ones.
“One finding that really struck me was that when you threw alcohol and other kinds of criminal activity into the mix, alcohol remained a strong predictor but the other forms of criminal activity did not,” said research director Garen Wintemute. “Alcohol was a more important predictor of future violence than prior violence was.” The study examined the criminal records of more than 4,000 gun owners in California who purchased a handgun from a licensed firearm dealer in 1977. During the next 14 years, almost a third of buyers — 32.8 percent — with prior alcohol convictions went on to commit a violent or firearm-related crime. Gun owners are also more likely than other people to over-consume alcohol, and Wintemute says, anywhere from 8.9 million to 11.7 million firearms owners binge drink in an average month. For men, dying from alcohol-related gun violence is as likely as dying from an alcohol-related motor vehicle crash. The Trace Oklahoma Sheriff to Retire Amid Medical Bill DisputeOklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel is retiring, a decision that avoids the possibility of being forced out when an investigation of his office is complete, The Oklahoman reports. Whetsel, a Democrat, has been sheriff 20 years and was last re-elected in a close vote in November. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, and now this is the season and the time for my retirement,” Whetsel, 67, said yesterday. He said he is convinced new leadership is required to solve problems with the aging and deteriorating county jail and to address persistent funding woes that make it difficult to hire and keep employees. A new jail is needed, he said.
An investigation into allegations of financial mismanagement at the sheriff’s office has been underway for months. After a special audit of the sheriff’s office at the request of District Attorney David Prater, state auditors concluded in October that, “All funds were not expended in a lawful manner.” The audit criticized Whetsel for not paying the jail’s medical bills for months in 2015 “even though funds were available at the time payment was due.” Florida-based Armor Correctional Health Services Inc., which provides medical care to inmates, filed a breach of contract lawsuit over the unpaid bills. It was awarded $3.3 million in June. If an appeal fails, county property owners may have to pay the award, through increased taxes over three years. The Oklahoman Court Delays Texas Execution Over Lawyer IssueToday’s scheduled execution of a Texas inmate remains delayed after a ruling from a federal appeals court, reports the Dallas Morning News. John Henry Ramirez, 32, was to be executed for the 2004 slaying of 45-year-old Pablo Castro during a robbery in Corpus Christi. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Neeva Gonzales Ramos halted the scheduled execution, ruling that Ramirez’s previous lawyer left him “effectively without counsel” and there wasn’t enough time to consider the appeal before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to get the reprieve reversed. “This is not abandonment; it is gamesmanship,” Assistant Texas Attorney General Jennifer Morris wrote. “It is a run-of-the-mill, last-ditch attempt to thwart his execution.” A three-judge panel let the order to halt the execution stand. In a prison interview, Ramos told KRIS-TV that he’d turned to drugs after being abused as a child. “I was so high on all those drugs and on alcohol, and you know I got so mad I guess,” he said. “It was so, so quick man. And I knew, I knew that I went too far when I saw him fall down bleeding.” Dallas Morning News
Wilmington, De., Shootings Up; Ramsey CriticizedSince leaving as Philadelphia police commissioner, Charles Ramsey has traveled the U.S. working with universities and think tanks, and consulting for cities struggling with violent crime. In Wilmington, De., where shootings continued to rise after Ramsey completed a $112,000 contract, some are questioning whether the city’s money was well spent. Ramsey was awarded the contract by then-Mayor Dennis Williams to address the rising number of shootings, including 26 gun homicides in 2015 in a city of 71,000, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.
This year, the city has recorded 21 shootings and eight homicides — four times the number reported in the same period last year, says the Wilmington News Journal. City Councilman Robert Williams, a police officer in Wilmington for more than two decades, told The News Journal he did not believe the Ramsey contract had any impact on public safety. “We got nothing to show for our money,” Williams said. Ramsey retired from the Philadelphia Police Department in January 2016. Philadelphia Inquirer | |
| | 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 Ted Gest and Alice Popovici. Please send comments or questions to alice@thecrimereport.org. | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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