Crime
Extra Extra Monday: Chemical safety data, post-9/11 veterans, NSA love interests
Back Home: The Enduring Battles Facing Post-9/11 Veterans | News21“In the 12 years since American troops first deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, more than 2.6 million veterans have returned home to a country largely unprepared to meet their needs. The government that sent them to war has failed on many levels to fulfill its obligations…
Read MoreTaken
A New Yorker article states: “The basic principle behind asset forfeiture is appealing. It enables authorities to confiscate cash or property obtained through illicit means, and, in many states, funnel the proceeds directly into the fight against crime. But the system has also given rise to corruption and violations of civil liberties. Over the past…
Read MoreLocked in Terror
The Fresno Bee reports: “The Fresno County Jail has been a place of terror and despair for mentally ill inmates who spiral deeper into madness because jail officials withhold their medication. About one in six jail inmates is sick enough to need antipsychotic drugs to control schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and other psychiatric conditions, but many…
Read MorePortland drug informant’s cases fall apart after questions about his credibility, whereabouts
“Police and prosecutors say checks-and-balances ensure the integrity of the system. But defense attorneys — whose clients faced years in prison because of Jackson’s work — say police wasted thousands in taxpayer dollars putting so much faith in a dubious undercover source,” The Oregonian reports.
Read MoreSan Diego law enforcement relied on troubled nonprofit to teach corrective behavior
For community service and corrective classes, San Diego law enforcement has sent defendants to organizations like the Corrective Behavior Institute for community service. In doing so, it has “sent people who haven’t followed the rules to a nonprofit that hasn’t followed them either,” according to an investigation by the Voice of San Diego, which found shoddy…
Read MoreDecades-old rape kits finally being tested
After finding out that the Cleveland Police Department had no idea how many rape kits were in their evidence room, Plain Dealer reporters Rachel Dissell and Leila Atassi started digging into how sexual assault cases were handled in their city. Finally, “unsolved crimes by the dozens are returning to Cleveland with DNA matches and the…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: informants allowed to commit crimes, programs covered up, travel rules bent at UCLA
UCLA officials bend travel rules with first-class flights, luxury hotels | The Center for Investigative ReportingOver the past several years, six of 17 academic deans at the Westwood campus routinely have submitted doctors’ notes stating they have a medical need to fly in a class other than economy, costing the university $234,000 more than it…
Read MoreFBI allowed informants to commit 5,600 crimes
A USA Today report states that the FBI gave its informants permission to break the law at least 5,658 times in a single year, according to newly disclosed documents that show just how often the nation’s top law enforcement agency enlists criminals to help it battle crime.
Read MoreAlexandria Police Shield Information on Officer-Involved Shooting
“No video. No audio. No transcripts. The Virginia Supreme Court operates in a total blackout. The Alexandria Gazette Packet exposes the shocking lack of transparency at the commonwealth’s top court.”
Read MoreSuffolk street gang said to be recruiting as young as 9
According to a Newsday report, “a North Bellport street gang that calls itself the “Natural Born Killers” is recruiting children as young as 9 years old to join the group, said residents and the head of the Suffolk County Legislature’s public safety committee.”
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