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Thursday, December 4, 2014
Wave of Protests Grand Jury Doesn't Indict Officer in Eric Garner Case
A Staten Island grand jury on Wednesday ended the criminal case against a white New York police officer whose chokehold on an unarmed black man led to the man’s death, a decision that drew condemnation from elected officials and touched off a wave of protests.
The fatal encounter in July was captured on videos and seen around the world. But after viewing the footage and hearing from witnesses, including the officer who used the chokehold, the jurors deliberated for less than a day before deciding that there was not enough evidence to go forward with charges against the officer, Daniel Pantaleo, 29, in the death of the man, Eric Garner, 43.
Officer Pantaleo, who has been on the force for eight years, appeared before the grand jury on Nov. 21, testifying that he did not intend to choke Mr. Garner, who was being arrested for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. Hedescribed the maneuver as a takedown move, adding that he never thought Mr. Garner was in mortal danger.
The decision came barely a week after a grand jury found no criminality in the actions of another white police officer, Darren Wilson, who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black man in Ferguson, Mo.
After the news from Staten Island, a wave of elected officials renewed calls for Justice Department intervention, saying the grand jury’s finding proved that justice could be found only in the federal courts. By the evening, the department announced it would open a civil rights inquiry.
On the streets of the city, from Tompkinsville to Times Square, manyexpressed their outrage with some of the last words Mr. Garner uttered before being wrestled to the ground: “This stops today,” people chanted. “I can’t breathe,” others shouted.
While hundreds of angry but generally peaceful demonstrators took to the streets in Manhattan as well as in Washington and other cities, the police in New York reported relatively few arrests, a stark contrast to the riots that unfolded in Ferguson in the hours after the grand jury decision was announced in the Brown case.
President Obama, speaking in Washington, said the decisions in New York and Missouri highlighted the frustrations that many African-Americans have harbored about a legal system that has a long history of discrimination against black people.
“When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that is a problem,” Mr. Obama said, “and it’s my job as president to help solve it.”
Officer Pantaleo said in statement on Wednesday that he felt “very bad about the death of Mr. Garner,” just as he had told the 23 panelists of the grand jury when he testified before them for two hours.
During the proceedings, jurors were shown three videos of the encounter, and in his testimony Officer Pantaleo sought to characterize his actions as a maneuver taught at the Police Academy. He said that while holding onto Mr. Garner, he felt fear that they would crash through a plate glass storefront as they tumbled to the ground, said Stuart London, his lawyer. One of the officer’s arms went around Mr. Garner’s throat, as Mr. Garner repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.”
Appearing with the Rev. Al Sharpton in Harlem, Mr. Garner’s widow, Esaw Garner, said she did not accept the officer’s apology.
“Hell, no,” Ms. Garner said. “The time for remorse for the death of my husband was when he was yelling to breathe.”
She said that while she mourned, the officer could go home to his family.
“He’s still feeding his kids,” she said, “and my husband is six feet under and I’m looking for a way to feed my kids now.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking on Staten Island, said that it was a “deeply emotional day” for the Garner family and all New Yorkers, and that he had thought of his own son in considering Mr. Garner’s fate. But he implored demonstrators to voice their outrage peacefully and not engage in the destructive violence that followed protests in Ferguson over Mr. Brown’s death.
“Today’s outcome is one that many in our city did not want,” Mr. de Blasio said. “Yet New York City owns a proud and powerful tradition of expressing ourselves through nonviolent protest.”
An autopsy by the city’s medical examiner found that Mr. Garner’s death was a homicide resulting from the chokehold — a maneuver banned by the Police Department in 1993 — and the compression of his chest by police officers.
In early September, the Staten Island district attorney, Daniel M. Donovan Jr., impaneled the grand jury to weigh evidence; it heard testimony from the officers involved and 22 civilian witnesses. All of the officers, with the exception of Officer Pantaleo, were granted immunity.
The encounter exposed apparent lapses in police tactics and raised questions about the aggressive policing of minor offenses in a time of historically low crime. The officers involved, part of a plainclothes unit, suspected Mr. Garner of selling cigarettes on the street near the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, a complaint voiced by local business owners.
Mr. Garner’s death hastened an effort to retrain all the department’s patrol officers and brought scrutiny on how officers who violate its rules are disciplined. Officer Pantaleo has been stripped of his gun and badge during the investigation.
Now, Mr. de Blasio said, the grand jury decision had accelerated the need for that overhaul. Earlier on Wednesday, the mayor announced the start of a pilot program to equip officers with body cameras to record encounters on patrol.
But how useful such technology will prove to be in settling disputes over police actions remains an open question. Mr. Garner’s relatives had believed for months that a widely circulated cellphone video of the violent arrest that caused his death would be enough to convince grand jurors that the case merited a criminal trial.
Jonathan C. Moore, a lawyer for the Garner family, said “We’re astounded by the outcome of the grand jury process.”
Graphic: Fatal Police Encounters in New York City
In a statement, Mr. Donovan said investigators also spoke with the emergency responders who provided medical treatment both at the scene and at the hospital, and expert witnesses in the area of forensic pathology as well as the procedures and training of police officers. He said that he was constrained by law from discussing details of their findings, but that he had petitioned the court for “authorization to publicly release specific information in connection with this grand jury investigation.”
He expressed his condolences to the family and said his office conducted a thorough investigation that “spanned four months.”
“I assured the public that I was committed to a fair, thorough, and responsible investigation into Mr. Garner’s death,” he said.
Grand juries determine whether enough evidence exists for a case to go forward to a criminal trial, either before a jury or a judge. By law, they operate in secret and hear only evidence presented by prosecutors, who also instruct the grand jurors on the law. Defense lawyers are barred from speaking. For a decision, 12 jurors who have heard all of the evidence must agree.
While the exact makeup of the grand jury was unclear, Mr. London said it was roughly half white, with the other half evenly divided among blacks and Hispanics.
With the criminal phase over, Officer Pantaleo’s fate moves into the realm of Police Department discipline. It is far from clear if he will return to enforcement duties, and Commissioner William J. Bratton said he would remain on suspension pending an internal investigation.
Even before Mr. Garner’s death, Mr. Bratton had been tasked by the mayor with repairing the fissures between the police and the communities they serve, moving away from street stops and minor marijuana arrests. Those changes, however, have yet to quell the anger that deaths such as Mr. Garner’s bring forth.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Three US Citizens Shot Dead In Mexico
The investigation is focused on a specialist security unit known as "Hercules", made up of former marines and soldiers who police hot zones for crime.
Nine of 40 Hercules officers, working in the violent border city of Matamoros, are being questioned over the deaths of four people, including the three US siblings.
According to a witness, brothers Alex Rivera, 22, and Jose Angel, 21, arrived at their father's house to find security personnel hitting their sister Erica, 26.
When the brothers intervened, the Hercules men took the siblings along with Erica's 32-year-old boyfriend Jose Guadalupe Castaneda Benitez.
The witnesses said the armed men identified themselves as members of the Hercules unit and warned against intervening.
The father of the three Americans, Pedro Alvarado, later identified his children from photographs of the bodies showing tattoos.
Each person had been shot in the head and the bodies were burned - most probably from having been lying in the hot sun for so long, police said.
The siblings were last seen in El Control, a small town near the Texas border west of Matamoros, about to return home to Progreso, Texas.
"They were good kids," said an aunt. "I don't know why they did that to them."
The three siblings lived with their mother, less than three miles from the border.
Erica, who has four children between the ages of three and nine, had been due to begin studying to become a nursing assistant next month.
If confirmed, it will be the third recent case of alleged abuse and killings by Mexican security forces, and the first to involve Americans.
Friday, October 24, 2014
Four Injured Two dead, In School Shooting at Washington High School
MARYSVILLE, Wash. -- Two people were found dead, including the shooter, inside Marysville-Pilchuck High School north of Seattle. Three other students were critically injured and the shooter, a student at the school, killed himself, according to police, student and hospital reports.
The shooter is freshman Jaylen Fryberg, according to students and his family members. Marysville Police Commander Robb Lamoureux would not confirm whether the second person killed was a student or not.
Providence Hospital said they have received four injured young people, two males and two females, three of whom were in critical condition.
All three individuals in critical condition suffered gunshot wounds to the head. All three went into surgery initially, and two were out of surgery, according to Dr. Joanne Roberts, Providence Hospital Chief Medical Officer.
A 14-year-old boy was transferred by ambulance to Harborview Medical Center around 12:30 p.m. from Providence. He was shot in the jaw and is in serious condition, but is expected to survive, according to Harborview.
There were no other shooters on campus. They have completed a sweep of the school, Marysville Police Commander Robb Lamoureux said.
The shooting took place at 10:39 a.m. Friday, according to Marysville police. The campus is on lockdown.
Parents should not go to the high school. Instead, police are setting up a transfer location at Shoultes Community Church.
The district sent out an automated phone call to parents telling them where to meet their kids.
Aerials showed students being led out of the school and evacuated onto buses.
Austin Taylor said he was sitting about 10 feet from the shooter inside the cafeteria.
"I was sitting at the table right next to the round table (where the shooter was). I just got done eating my food. He was quiet, everyone was talking. All of sudden he stands up, pulls something out of his pocket. At first I thought it was someone making a really loud noise like a bag, a loud pop. There were four more after that. I saw three kids just fall from the table, like they were falling to the ground dead. I jumped under the table as fast as I could. When it stopped, I got back up and saw he was trying to reload his gun. And when that happened, I just ran in the opposite direction and I was out of there as fast as I could."
Another student described his experience on campus following the incident.
"We all heard the fire alarm. We didn't hear any gunshots because we were so far away," said Bryce Vitcovitch, student. "We all started to evacuate into the field. Right when we got to the field, a teacher came running out obviously in a hurry and he was yelling to go back into the classrooms...We got into the classrooms immediately and from there rumors started flying."
All other school activities have been cancelled, according to the Marysville School District.
A prayer vigil is planned for 6:30 p.m. at The Grove Church, according to Pastor Andrew Munoz.
The Marysville-Pilchuck football coach said he is not at school, but is checking in with his players by text.
"I'm just making sure my kids are safe," Coach Brandon Carson said. "I don't know if any players are involved. I have checked in with a few, and I have talked with a handful of kids.
"They said there's a shooter in the lunchroom and that's all I know."
Di Andres, whose 17-year-old son is a student, said her son texted her about the shooting.
"He said that the school has been in lockdown and he's been hiding in a closet in a classroom with some classmates," said Andres. "As far as we know, he's okay and safe with those other classmates."
Governor Jay Inslee has been briefed about the shooting.
A statement from his office said that he "like everybody is keeping these students and families in his prayers."
President Obama has also been briefed, according to a tweet from NBC Nightly News.
The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office is assisting Marysville police. The FBI also has personnel on the way to assist.
Airlift Northwest confirms that they are transporting two patients, but didn't give more information.
Marysville School District statement:
"The Marysville Pilchuck High School is currently in lock down due to an emergency situation. Police and emergency services have responded. The Marysville School District lock down procedures will remain in effect at Marysville Pilchuck until further notice from law enforcement. We will continue to forward communication in cooperation with law enforcement."
Scene of sadness and grief at Marysville Pilchuck High School.
Scene of sadness and grief at Marysville Pilchuck High School.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Michael Phelps suspended 6 months by USA Swimming
USA Swimming has suspended Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps for six months for violating the organization's code of conduct. The announcement Monday comes nearly a week after Phelps was arrested for driving under the influence, and a day after he said he would enter a six-week treatment program.
Phelps will be suspended from USA Swimming-sanctioned competition for six months, not eligible to compete again until April 6, 2015.
He will also forfeit his funding from USA Swimming for six months, and he will withdraw from the 2015 world championship team. He will not represent the U.S. next August in Kazan, Russia -- a major tune-up meet for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
"Membership in USA Swimming, and particularly at the National Team level, includes a clear obligation to adhere to our Code of Conduct," USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wieglus said in a statement. "Should an infraction occur, it is our responsibility to take appropriate action based on the individual case. Michael's conduct was serious and required significant consequences. Michael has publicly acknowledged the impact of his decisions, his accountability especially due to his stature in the sport and the steps necessary for self-improvement. We endorse and are here to fully support his personal development actions."
USOC CEO Scott Blackmun called the sanctions "appropriate" in a statement released Monday. "We are glad that Michael is seeking help. We are grateful that nobody was hurt and appreciate the speed at which USA Swimming and Michael took action," the statement said.
Phelps' punishment takes effect immediately.
The 29-year-old announced Sunday he would take time away from the sport to enter treatment. "I recognize that this is not my first lapse in judgment, and I am extremely disappointed with myself," Phelps said in a statement.
"Swimming is a major part of my life, but right now I need to focus my attention on me as an individual, and do the necessary work to learn from this experience and make better decisions in the future."
On Sept. 30 Phelps was also charged with excessive speed and crossing double lane lines within the Fort McHenry Tunnel on I-95 in Baltimore, the Maryland Transportation Authority Police said. Police said he was driving 84 mph in a 45-mph zone.
When Phelps was pulled over just before the toll plaza, he "appeared to be under the influence" and "was unable to perform satisfactorily a series of standard field sobriety tests," according to the police statement. Phelps was cooperative throughout the process, police said. He was later released.
This charge is not Phelps' first DUI-related offense. In 2004, a then-19-year-old Phelps was arrested for drunken driving and was ultimately sentenced to 18 months of probation.
It's not the first time USA Swimming has suspended Phelps from competition. In 2009, a photo surfaced of Phelps with a marijuana pipe at a party. He was suspended for three months.
During his suspension, Phelps is allowed to train with his North Baltimore Aquatic Club. Phelps is the most decorated Olympian in history, with 22 medals from the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics. He retired after the London Games, where he won four golds, but began training last fall and officially returned to competition in April.
At last month's Pan Pacific Championships, his first international meet since London, he won three gold medals and two silvers.
Swimmers will qualify for the Rio Olympics at the team trials in Omaha, June 26-July 3, 2016.
USSA TODAY SPORTS
BY Nicole Auebarch
USA Today Sports
USSA TODAY SPORTS
BY Nicole Auebarch
USA Today Sports
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Missing Students, a Mass Grave and a Suspect: Mexico’s Police
© Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times The parents of 43 students missing since Sept. 26 met Sunday at the teachers college their children attended in southern Mexico.
© Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times Twenty-two police officers under arrest in Iguala, Mexico, have been accused of secretly working for or belonging to a gang.
IGUALA, Mexico — They were farm boys who did well in school and took one of the few options available beyond the backbreaking work in the corn and bean fields of southern Mexico: enrolling in a local teachers college with a history of radicalism but the promise of a stable classroom job.
Leonel Castro, 19, the oldest of seven siblings, vowed to use his salary to help his impoverished family. Júlio César, 19, thought he could run a school one day and ensure the best for the next generation. Adán Abraham de la Cruz, 23, wanted to put his computer skills to good use in the classroom.
“He was just preparing himself to get ahead like any young person would do,” said Mr. de la Cruz’s father, Bernabé.
Now, they are among 43 students reported missing after deadly clashes with the police on Sept. 26, when at least six student protesters and bystanders were killed in the restive, rural state of Guerrero, one of the poorest in the country and long afflicted by political, social and criminal upheaval.
The state prosecutor investigating why the police opened fire on students from their vehicles has found mass graves in Iguala — the small industrial city where the confrontations occurred — containing 28 badly burned and dismembered bodies.
The prosecutors had already arrested 22 police officers after the clashes, saying the officers secretly worked for, or were members of, a local gang. Now they are investigating whether the police apprehended the students after the confrontation and deliberately turned them over to the local gang. Two witnesses in custody told prosecutors that the gang then killed the protesters on the orders of a leader known as “El Chucky.”
“I saw police trucks go up and down the hill to up there, where the bodies are found,” said one man in the neighborhood near the site who declined to give his name out of fear. “Then came the news they found the grave and it may be the students. But you would be a fool around here to accuse the police and expect to live.”
Even in a country accustomed to mass killings, the case has generated alarm in Mexico, both for the possible involvement of the police and the fact that the students were not known to have criminal ties. Miguel Martinez, a representative for the families, said students at the school had fought back against extortion attempts by gangs last year, but it was not clear if that could have made them a target now.
The students, by many accounts, had been soliciting money in Iguala for an Oct. 2 demonstration rejecting cuts to their state-financed school, which opened in 1926 and has long played a role in local social justice movements. Such student demonstrations are part of a well-known militancy that goes back decades and has provoked violence in the past. It did again this time, as students got into a skirmish with the police when they tried to steal buses to take to and from the demonstration, human rights groups said.
The mayor and the police chief of Iguala are now on the run, having disappeared after being subpoenaed in the case, and the governor of the state confirmed that the local gang, known as Guerreros Unidos, had infiltrated the police force in Iguala, as well as other police departments in the state.
The specter of corrupted police has haunted Mexico for years. But these disappearances come at a time when President Enrique Peña Nieto is already confronting the prosecution of at least three soldiers charged with homicide in another recent case — the shooting death of 22 people captured in a warehouse in June.
“I feel deeply outraged and dismayed,” Mr. Peña Nieto told reporters Monday, referring to the violence here and dispatching the attorney general and other federal forces to the region. “I regret, in particular, the violence that occurred and especially that it was young students who were affected and whose rights were violated in the city of Iguala.”
Mr. Peña Nieto’s predecessor, Felipe Calderón, also faced wave after wave of police corruption scandals, with some entire local forces dismissed. But experts say that, even as violence soared, both administrations fell behind in putting in place measures to hold law enforcement authorities accountable.
Only this year did Mexico pass a law allowing members of the military to be tried in civilian courts for human rights abuses, and many feel that Mr. Peña Nieto has been more focused on shifting the dialogue to Mexico’s economy than on fighting corruption and improving security.
“A serious and sustained effort at reforming local police agencies has been a pending agenda for a long time in Mexico,” said Matthew C. Ingram, an assistant professor at the University at Albany who studies justice in Mexico. “As long as local, municipal police agencies remain weak, they will not have the capacity to generate public trust or resist corruption and capture.”
Here at the small, 500-student mountaintop teachers college, Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos, where cows and stray dogs roam freely and walls are adorned with slogans like “protest is a right, repression is a crime,” a hodgepodge of human rights and radical groups and representatives of the families have vowed paralyzing strikes across the country on Wednesday to keep the pressure on the authorities for answers.
Parents of the missing students doubt the effectiveness of state investigators. A team of forensic experts from Argentina with long experience in mass disappearance cases has arrived, and on Monday it began interviewing family members and collecting other data as part of an independent investigation, though it was unclear if they would have access to the bodies found.
States officials said it could take at least two weeks and possibly longer to identify the remains because of their poor condition.
And if the bodies are not those of the missing students, the question remains: Where did they come from?
Several parents said that they still hoped their children would be found alive. Although the number of missing has fluctuated, the current list of 43 was developed after students and human rights representatives said they had called family members and friends and searched school grounds and other places, failing to account for 43 classmates.
“We have to keep looking and praying,” said Santa Cruz Castro, the father of Leonel.
He last spoke to his son when Leonel called him the day of the confrontation, saying, “Don’t worry, Dad, I am going to the march,” which Mr. Cruz took to mean the collection drive in Iguala. “And then I didn’t hear from him and saw the news about the shootings. We didn’t know what to do.”
In a sign of defiance and concern, placards and bumper stickers are popping up here and in other cities in Guerrero on buses, storefronts and buildings. Their slogan — #HastaEncontrarlos — means: “Until they are found.”
© Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times The parents of 43 students missing since Sept. 26 met Sunday at the teachers college their children attended in southern Mexico.
The New York Times Rondal c. Archibold
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