A zealous prosecutor who helped write the Justice Department’s new policy encouraging harsher punishments for criminals is now turning his attention to hate crimes, marijuana and the ways law enforcement seizes suspects’ cash and property, the Associated Press reports. Steve Cook’s hardline views on criminal justice were fortified as a cop on the streets of Knoxville, Tn., in the 1970s and 1980s. The unabashed drug warrior is armed with a broad mandate to review DOJ policies. Cook sums up his philosophy in simple terms that crystalized one night on patrol when he came upon a family whose station wagon had been hit head-on by a “pilled-up drug user.” Two daughters were dead in the backseat. In Cook’s eyes, everyone had to be punished, including the courier who shuttled the drugs into town and the dealer who sold them to the man behind the wheel. “This theory that we have embraced since the beginning of civilization is, when you put criminals in prison, crime goes down,” he told the AP. “It really is that simple.” It is actually a widely challenged view, seen by many as far from simple. It is one that governs Cook as he helps oversee a Justice Department task force developing policies to fight violent crime. He is pushing ideas that even some Republicans have dismissed as outdated and fiscally irresponsible. Cook helped craft Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ directive urging the nation’s federal prosecutors to seek the steepest penalties for most suspects, a move that will send more people to prison for longer, and which was assailed by critics as a revival of failed drug war policies that ravaged minority communities. Cook finds the criticism baffling. The debate takes the focus off the real victims, he said: drug addicts, their families and those killed and injured as the opioid epidemic rages. “For me, it’s like the world is turned upside-down,” Cook told the AP. “We now somehow see these drug traffickers as the victims. That’s just bizarre to me.” A concerted effort to reduce violent crime in Chicago during the Memorial Day weekend appears to have led to a drop in shootings, the Wall Street Journal reports. Increased police presence across the nation’s third-largest city and raids targeting gangs helped drive a reduction in violent crime, authorities said, with about half as many people shot than during the holiday weekend last year. As of 2 p.m. Monday, 27 people had been shot in 21 incidents since Friday evening, compared with 53 people shot in 35 incidents over the same period last year. Last year, violence over the Memorial Day weekend was the start of a bloody summer in the city. The year ended with more than 4,000 shootings and 762 homicides, the largest single-year increase in violent crime that any of the five largest U.S. cities had experienced in at least 25 years. The drop this holiday weekend suggests police are having initial success in bringing down violent crime through stepped-up enforcement and cooperation with federal agencies. Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the main difference is seeing police on the streets. About 1,300 additional officers were deployed to patrol over this long weekend, compared with 880 in 2016. The weekend began with several gang raids, a culmination of cooperation between Chicago police and federal authorities. Parallel anti-violence and gang raids resulted in 77 arrests, the seizure of 10 illegal guns, more than 176 traffic citations and the confiscation of illegal drugs as of Saturday night. After a spike in deadly attacks on police, more than a dozen states have responded this year with “Blue Lives Matter” laws that come down even harder on crimes against law enforcement officers, the Associated Press reports. The measures raise concern among some civil rights activists of a potential setback in police-community relations. The laws build up existing statutes allowing harsher sentences for people who kill or assault police. They impose even tougher penalties, extend them to more offenses, including nonviolent ones such as trespassing in Missouri, and broaden the list of victims covered to include off-duty officers, police relatives and some civilians at law enforcement agencies. Proponents say an escalation of violence against police justifies the heightened protections. “What we’re getting into as a society is that people are targeting police officers not by something that they may have done to them, but just because they’re wearing that uniform,” said Missouri state Rep. Shawn Rhoads, a former detective. People protesting aggressive police tactics are expressing alarm. “This is another form of heightened repression of activists,” said Zaki Baruti, a community organizer from St. Louis County. “It sends a message to protesters that we better not look at police cross-eyed.” Police deaths on the job have declined over the past four decades, from a high of 280 in 1974 to a low of 116 in 2013, says the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. They rose last year to 143, including 21 killed in ambushes — the highest number of such attacks in more than two decades. Nearly all states already have laws enhancing the punishments for certain violent crimes against law officers. Minnesota prosecutors face challenges as they seek a conviction in the case of Jeronimo Yanez, the St. Anthony, Mn., police officer accused of recklessly shooting and killing Philando Castile during a traffic stop last summer, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. Yanez’ trial will open today, reigniting scrutiny of the seconds that preceded his decision to shoot the 32-year-old black man shortly after pulling him over. The incident’s aftermath was live-streamed on Facebook by Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, who was with him in the car at the time, as was her then-4-year-old daughter. The footage fueled protests locally and nationally about officers’ use of force against black men. After months of investigation, the 29-year-old Latino officer was charged with second-degree manslaughter and two felony-level counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm. The decision stunned many, because Yanez was the first Minnesota officer in memory to be charged in such an incident. While thousands of police have fatally shot someone since 2005, only 81 have been charged with murder or manslaughter, said criminologist Philip Stinson of Bowling Green State University. Of those charged, most don’t end up being convicted, particularly if the officer takes the stand in his or her own defense. A steep hurdle for prosecutors in officer-involved shootings is convincing jurors to abandon the benefit of the doubt many instinctively give to police, who are allowed to use deadly force when facing a threat of serious harm or death to themselves or someone else. Yanez was on patrol July 6 when he decided to pull Castile over just after 9 p.m. He told his partner he was making the stop because the people in the car resembled suspects in a recent armed robbery. He added, “The driver looks more like one of our suspects just because of the wide-set nose.” In New Hampshire, a new rule bars inmates and their visitors from hugging for more than three seconds. In Virginia, prisoners must change their underwear before and after receiving a visitor. States are placing new limits on what kind of mail inmates can receive, Stateline reports. The changes are designed to keep drugs, especially opioids, out of prison. Of particular concern is Suboxone, an addiction-treatment drug whose razor-thin strips, designed to be placed under the tongue, are easily hidden. The drugs can help tame withdrawals for those already addicted to opioids or provide a mild high to those who are not. Once affixed to something, Suboxone strips leave a pale yellow outline. Prison officials have found the strips hidden under postage stamps and concealed by crayon drawings. In visiting rooms, people have transferred the drugs to each other during embraces and hidden them in packages of food from on-site vending machines. Drugs have long been a problem in prisons; the opioid epidemic is straining the resources of prison staff in a way other drugs have not. Prison officials say they cannot stand by as the drugs cause overdoses and cause gang activity. They say they have moved to limit inmates’ contact with the outside world after it’s been shown as an avenue for drug smuggling. Critics question the effectiveness of the strategies and say they unfairly restrict the rights of prisoners and their visitors while ignoring the possible role of prison staff. New Hampshire rolled out its policy in January after four overdoses that month, one of which was fatal. In addition to the time limit on hugs, the state banned kissing between inmates and visitors and removed board games and vending machine food from visiting rooms. Authorities took Willie Cory Godbolt into custody in Brookhaven, Ms., Sunday morning after they say he killed eight people, including Lincoln County Deputy William Durr, 36, reports the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. The shooting spree began at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday with a domestic call in Bogue Chitto, Ms. Four bodies — three females and the deputy — were recovered there. Two juvenile males were later found in Brookhaven in one location and a man and a woman at another place in the city. Godbolt told The Clarion-Ledger that he had gone to a residence in Bogue Chitto to talk about his children. At some point neighbors called police, and that’s when the deputy arrived to calm the situation. “My pain wasn’t designed for him. He was just there,” Godbolt said of the deputy. “We was talking about me trying to take the children home … somebody called the officer … that’s what they do, they intervene. It cost him his life. I’m sorry.” When asked what’s next for him, Godbolt said, “Death … Suicide by cop was my intention. I ain’t fit to live. Not after what I’ve done.” As authorities took Godbolt to the ground, he was saying he had been shot by someone inside the home. Durr was a two-year veteran of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department and a four- year veteran of the Brookhaven Police Department. Brookhaven has around 14,000 people, and Bogue Chitto, an unincorporated town of about 533, is about 10 miles south. The horrific scene unfolded on a crowded Portland, Or., public transit train in less than 10 minutes between stops at the start of a long holiday weekend, The Oregonian reports. A known extremist terrorized a teenage girl wearing a hijab and her friend, then turned his rage on an Army veteran, a recent Reed College graduate, and an aspiring poet who tried to calm him down. Police say Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, cut all three men in the neck, leaving two dead and another injured from knife wounds. The rampage stunned city leaders and left friends and strangers mourning the loss of two lives, applauding the selfless acts of heroes and condemning the racist vitriol that preceded the violence. Rick Best, 53, Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, and Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, intervened Friday when Christian, a man known to police for his hate speech and extremist views, launched a slur-filled diatribe at the girl wearing a hijab and her friend after he boarded the train. The three men tried to talk Christian down as they rode the train. Best, a city technician and a 23-year retired Army veteran, died on the train as Christian fled. Namkai-Meche died a later at a hospital. Fletcher was hospitalized. He was on his way to his job at a pizza shop when Christian started yelling at the girls, and he attempted to come to their aid. His jaw was broken and neck punctured, and surgeons had to remove bone shards from his throat. Christian was eventually captured. The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the killings and called on President Trump to denounce growing bigotry in the wake of the stabbings. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler singled out “our current political climate” that he said “allows far too much room for those who spread bigotry. Violent words can lead to violent acts.” (Yesterday, Wheeler urged cancellation of a “Trump Free Speech Rally” and similar events, saying they are inappropriate and could be dangerous after the stabbing, the Associated Press reports.) Five times a year, Pennsylvania corrections officials meet inside a white block masonry field house at a prison and carry out a mock execution. They escort the “inmate” to the execution chamber. They strap that person onto the gurney. Then they simulate injecting a lethal dose of drugs into his body. They perform this drill even though capital punishment in Pennsylvania remains indefinitely on hold while government officials await a report, now years in the making, analyzing capital punishment’s history, effectiveness and cost, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Harrisburg bureau. The death sentence imposed last month on Eric Frein, the survivalist who killed a State Police trooper and injured another in 2014, has reignited questions – and in some cases, criticism – about why the state has taken so long to decide whether to continue or stop, once and for all, executing criminals. Troopers say Gov. Tom Wolf should sign Frein’s death warrant. “For us, it’s all about justice,” said Joe Kovel, president of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association. “It’s time for the moratorium to be lifted.” State Sen. Scott Wagner, a Republican hoping to unseat the governor next year, has signaled it’s an issue he’ll press on the campaign trail. Capital punishment is authorized in 31 states, but only seven have carried out executions — 31 of them — since the start of 2016. Wolf imposed a moratorium the death penalty after taking office in 2015. He argued the state should await the results of a long-awaited report by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment. The report is expected to analyze more than a dozen factors involving the death penalty, such as cost, bias and effectiveness. The study has come under fire, particularly for how long it’s taking: it was ordered by the state Senate in 2011 and was supposed to be completed by 2013. Lucy McBath is afraid many more people will die if Florida Gov. Rick Scott signs a bill making it harder to prosecute when people say they commit violence in self-defense, the Associated Press reports. She lost her son, an unarmed black teenager, when a white man angry over loud music and claiming self-defense fired 10 times at an SUV filled with teenagers. The measure before Scott would require a trial-before-a-trial whenever someone invokes self-defense, making prosecutors prove the suspect doesn’t deserve immunity. Scott hasn’t said if he will sign the bill, but he is a National Rifle Association supporter, and it is an NRA priority. “If it passes in Florida, then they take that same legislation and they push it … across the country,” said McBath. Her son Jordan Davis, 17, was killed by Michael Dunn outside a Jacksonville convenience store in 2012. Many states allow people to use deadly force to defend themselves in their own homes under the “castle doctrine.” Florida in 2005 passed a law saying that even outside a home, a person has no duty to retreat and can “stand his or her ground” anywhere they are legally allowed. Other states followed suit, and “stand your ground” defenses became much more common. The 2012 killing of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman opened the self-defense debate. Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder after jurors received instructions on Florida’s “stand your ground” law. Florida Republicans drafted the new bill after the state Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that the defendant has the burden of proof before trial. Sponsors hope Florida starts a national trend to shift that burden to prosecutors. Only four of the 22 or more state “stand your ground” laws mention this burden of proof — in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina — and all place it on defendants. Between 2010 and 2015 the U.S. incarceration rate fell 8 percent. Far from leading to a surge in crime, this was accompanied by a 15 percent crime drop. The United States is an outlier, but plenty of countries fail to use prison intelligently, The Economist reports. There is ample evidence of what works, says the magazine: Reserve prison for the worst offenders. Divert the less scary ones to drug treatment, community service and other penalties that do not mean severing ties with work, family and normality. There are 2.6 million prisoners around the world, a quarter of the total, who are awaiting trial. For a small fraction of the cost of locking them up, they could be fitted with GPS-enabled ankle bracelets that monitor where they are and whether they are taking drugs. Tagging can also be used as an alternative to locking up convicts—a “prison without walls,” to quote Mark Kleiman of New York University, who estimates that as many as half of U.S. prisoners could be released and tagged. A study in Argentina finds that low-risk prisoners who are tagged instead of being incarcerated are less likely to reoffend, probably because they remain among normal folk instead of sitting idly in a cage with sociopaths. Justice systems could do far more to rehabilitate prisoners. Cognitive behavioral therapy—counseling prisoners on how to avoid the places, people and situations that prompt them to commit crimes—can reduce recidivism by 10 to 30 percent, and is especially useful in dealing with young offenders. It is also cheap, yet by one estimate, only 5 percent of prisoners have access to it. Some states do much better than others at rehabilitation. Oregon, which insists that programs to reform felons are measured for effectiveness, has recidivism rates at less than half than in California. Lee Boyd Malvo’s life sentences for his role in the 2002 sniper shootings in Virginia were thrown out by a federal judge because Malvo was 17 at the time of the attacks, the Washington Post reports. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional for juveniles, and four years later, the court decided that ruling should be applied retroactively. Even though Malvo agreed to serve two life sentences without parole, in addition to being convicted by a jury and sentenced to two life sentences, U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Jackson vacated all four sentences and ordered resentencings. The ruling does not apply to the six life sentences Malvo received in Maryland after he pleaded guilty to six murder charges there. He is appealing in both state and federal court on the same grounds. Malvo could still receive life sentences again. Malvo, now 32, and John Allen Muhammad were both convicted of 10 murders committed in a three-week period in the Washington, D.C. area. Muhammad was sentenced to death, and he was executed in 2009. Prosecutors sought the death penalty for Malvo as well, but a jury in Chesapeake, Va., chose a life sentence. |
