Chicago officer charged with murder scheme

Sunday, July 17, 2005; Posted: 1:30 p.m. EDT (17:30 GMT)

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- An officer on the police force for 14 years has been charged with arranging a murder in a scheme to collect on a $500,000 life insurance policy.

Officer Edward Leak Jr. was ordered held without bail after being charged Thursday with first-degree murder and solicitation to commit murder for hire in the shooting death of Fred Hamilton, said Cook County state's attorney spokesman Tom Stanton.

Hamilton, 35, a driver for a South Side funeral home owned by Leak's family, was shot nine times when he stopped to change a flat tire in February 2004.

Prosecutors say Leak hired two men to ambush Hamilton as part of a scheme to collect on a $500,000 life insurance policy he had taken out on Hamilton.

In addition, Hamilton had made an anonymous calls to the police department's Internal Affairs Division months before his death claiming that Leak was involved in insurance fraud, Deputy Police Superintendent Hiram Grau said.

Leak, 42, was arrested Thursday after an internal investigation by the police department and its cold case squad.

Two other men -- 44-year-old Alfred Marley and John Brown, 33 -- were charged last year with first-degree murder in connection with Hamilton's slaying and are being held without bail, Cook County state's attorney spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said.

Leak's family was shocked at the charge, said attorney E. Powell Dunham.

"The family is sure he did not do this," Dunham told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Human weaknesses after all are not limited to country or race. A dastardly act indeed,
but half million dollars - quite a strong motivation.

There is no perfect execution of an act motivated by evil-greed.

Is police anti-terror policy justified?

The Met Police Chief has insisted that the policy of "shoot-to-kill in order to protect" should continue.

Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, 27 was shot dead in error by police at Stockwell Tube station as part of the inquiry into attempted bomb attacks. He was later found not to be connected to the incidents.

Met Police Chief Sir Ian Blair has apologised to the family and warned that more innocent people might be killed in the fight against terrorism.
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SORRY.... :drunk:
If that happened here with a Briton killed, it's F#$@&*G Human Rights Abuse! Police Brutality!

Then travel advisory. Don't go to the Philippines. While their country nows justifies "Shoot to Kill" Orders. If you happened to be bearded, foreign, or arab looking... :pistols: :drool: Sorry...

Motivations for enlisting with the Iraqi police
Do some seek to profit from their role on the dangerous force?

Nightly News
By Kerry Sanders
Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 1:26 p.m. ET July 26, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - He dashes from bombing scene to bombing scene, and what he sees is barbaric.

Ali, who would not give his last name out of fear for his life, takes a camera with him everywhere he goes and documents the cruel aftermath of the nearly daily suicide bombings here.

But it’s what he’s been unable to shoot that has him boiling angry of late.
Story continues below ↓ advertisement

Profiteering from violence
At a bombing in al-Karada, a Baghdad neighborhood, four bodies lay in the street, blood and smoldering debris within an area the size of most American’s living rooms.

As emergency officials moved in, Ali filmed the police. Then he stopped. He says he had no choice. It could cost him his life.

Ali watched as the officers reached into the victims’ pockets and pulled out their wallets. He says they then stripped the bodies of rings, necklaces and other jewelry.

“What can I do? I can’t say anything. They’ll shoot me,” he said.

It’s unclear if this thievery is a widespread practice, or if this was an isolated incident.

Ali says he’s seen it before.

“The problem is the police volunteer for the job. There are thieves who join just for this opportunity,” he says.

Flaws in force
His accusations could well be true.

A report issued by the Pentagon and U.S. State Department on Monday details serious flaws in the Iraqi police force.

The U.S. inspectors noted that many Iraqi police officers are not properly vetted — allowing even insurgents to join up, as well as those with criminal records.

“Inducting criminals into the [Iraqi police] is a continual concern,” the report said.

The hastily assembled Iraqi police forces number approximately 94,000 according to the U.S. military.

The Americans should give the recruitment tasks to the trusted Iraqis, to minimize insurgents gaining their place in the police and military establishment. The Americans are not well conversant of their culture being a foreigner in that land and the result is they can arrive to selecting the wrong breed of people.

'Super cop' guilty of harassment

India's Supreme Court has upheld the conviction for sexual harassment of a policeman who became a national hero.

"Super cop" KPS Gill must pay more than $4,500 compensation to a female civil servant who said he slapped her bottom while drunk at a 1988 cocktail party.

The Supreme Court ruled out a three-month prison term for Gill.

Gill, now retired, denied the charges. He shot to prominence as Punjab police chief in the early 1990s when he led efforts to crush Sikh militancy.

Alcohol ban

Gill was head of Punjab police when he molested Rupan Deol Bajaj, a senior female bureaucrat who worked for the elite Indian Administrative Service.

He was convicted 10 years later of "outraging her modesty".

The Sessions Court in Punjab sentenced him to three months in prison in 1998.

That was later commuted to a year on probation by the state high court, which ordered Gill to pay compensation to his victim and a fine.

Upholding the conviction, two Supreme Court judges on Wednesday ordered that the officer pay the compensation as well as $500 in legal expenses.

Ms Bajaj refused to accept the compensation and said the money should be donated to a women's welfare home.

Gill was also ordered not to drink in public by the Supreme Court.

But the judges said a jail term was not necessary as he had already served probation.

Human rights

The BBC's Abhishek Prabhat in Delhi says Gill enjoyed iconic status for his success in stamping out Sikh militancy.

He was dubbed a one-man army and feared by criminals across the country, earning him the "super cop" nickname.

Three years ago he was called out of retirement as Gujarat security adviser after religious riots swept the state.

Gill, who now heads the Indian Hockey Federation, has been a controversial figure for years.

He was accused of excesses in Punjab by human rights groups.

Spies implicated in Munir death

A team investigating the murder of an Indonesian human rights activist has found indications that the country's intelligence agency was involved.

Munir died during a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam last September, after his food was apparently poisoned.

A Dutch autopsy found a lethal dose of arsenic in his bloodstream.

The investigating team has no powers of prosecution, but will deliver its report to the president and will ask Indonesia's police to follow it up.

"There are indications of [the intelligence agency's] involvement... but we cannot say whether the agency was involved as an institution or whether it was just individual officers," said Asmara Nababan, deputy chairman of the fact finding team.

"We have the names of people who have played key roles, but we cannot determine how far is their involvement in the murder," he added.

Indonesian police have already named three suspects - Pollycarpus Priyanto, a former pilot who allegedly gave up his business class seat to Munir during the flight, and two flight attendants.

All three worked for state-owned Garuda Airlines.

Recommendations

The team said police should also open an investigation into the former chief of the intelligence agency, Abdullah Hendropriyono, and several of his deputies, including Muchdi Purwopranjono, the former chief of the army special forces unit.

Mr Hendropriyono has refused to testify in front of the investigating panel.

Munir took up the cause of numerous activists who disappeared in suspicious circumstances, and also spoke out against the abuses committed by the Indonesian military across the country during the rule of former President Suharto.

He once said he had lost count of the number of death threats he had received.

The activist is said to have sent an SMS text message from Singapore airport, where his plane made a stopover, to his wife telling her he was feeling ill. A few hours later he was dead.
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Another dose of the Inteligencia.

:drunk: :drool:

It needs only the slightest misdemeanor to wipe out the flying colors of your achievements.

Police: Handcuffing girl not a violation

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- Police officers committed an error of judgment when they handcuffed an unruly kindergartner at school in March but did not violate policy, the department's chief said Thursday.

Chief Chuck Harmon said the two officers who handcuffed the 5-year-old girl were reprimanded for minor errors in handling the situation, which gained worldwide attention when a videotape of the confrontation was released to broadcasters.

But Harmon said the officers were not punished for shackling the child, who had torn up a classroom and hit an assistant principal before the officers arrived.

Still, Harmon said, the officers should have done more investigation, explored ways to defuse the situation and allowed school officials to take the lead in handling it.

"This child needed some intervention, but I don't think it was by law enforcement," Harmon said, calling the handcuffing "premature."

The video of the March 14 confrontation prompted criticism of the police and school system, and charges of racism that brought the Rev. Jesse Jackson to town to meet with school officials. The girl is black, and the police officers are white.

Harmon said Thursday that the report found no evidence of racism by the officers.

A video camera captured images of the girl tearing papers off a bulletin board, climbing on a table and punching the assistant principal before police were called.

Then the tape shows the child appearing to calm down before officers approach, pin her arms behind her back and put on handcuffs as she screamed, "No!" and began to cry.

The girl was put in the back of a police car and had her feet restrained after she tried to kick out the window. She was released later without charges.

The girl's mother, Inga Akins, sold her story exclusively to a tabloid TV show, and her attorneys have notified the city that she plans to sue. A working phone number for Akins could not be located Thursday, and she could not be reached for comment. A call to her Stuart attorneys was not immediately returned.

Harmon said the incident prompted a policy change that will prohibit handcuffing children younger than 8 without a supervising officer being called to the scene. But officers need to retain the option of handcuffing children in "extreme situations," such as when a weapon is involved, he said.

Tricia Hoffler, an attorney for the girl and her mother, said she was disappointed that the officers were not more severely punished but was encouraged that the police department has reviewed its policies regarding handcuffing children.

Hoffler added that she's planning to file a suit. "Our client will never be the same," she said.

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Calling Bantay-Bata...

Those police officers knew that a handcuff is not really needed in that situation they were attending, as they can easily restrained that child without it. The most likely probable reason is they were just extremely annoyed of the youngster's behavior, and just to teach her a sort of a lesson.

PNG admits police force brutality
Papua New Guinea's police minister, Bire Kimisopa, has admitted that he is aware of females being raped while in police custody.



He was responding to a scathing report by US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) which detailed an epidemic of extreme physical violence by police in PNG.

This includes the gang rape of young girls in police custody, HRW said.

Mr Kimisopa told Australia's ABC radio that he was not proud of police violence and was working to stop it.

"I'm aware of instances of female offenders in custody being raped. That's something we're not proud of, that's something we need to eradicate within the PNG police force now," he said.

It was not clear whether Mr Kimisopa was referring to the rape of women or girls.

"All I can say is that as far the PNG police force is concerned, now we're going to change that culture and we're working extremely hard to change the culture."

The HRW report, released on Wednesday, described the violence as widespread.

Children, it said, are routinely beaten and kicked, knifed and even shot by police officers.

Sexual abuse, including the gang rape of girls and boys, is also common, it said.

One of the report's researchers said some of the violence and acts of sexual humiliation were so severe that they constituted torture.

Government officials knew about the abuse, the report went on, but were doing little to prevent it.

Australian role

As well as calling on the government to intervene, the researchers also called on Australia, Papua New Guinea's largest foreign aid donor, to take a more active role in making the police more accountable.

Australia has just agreed to send a small group of its own police officers to Papua New Guinea and also to provide police training.

That support could include ways of improving discipline and tackling abuse.

The report did hail one positive development - the recent setting up of juvenile courts in Papua New Guinea.

The new courts and guidelines for dealing with children were important steps in the right direction, it said, but at the moment any gains were being undermined by rampant police violence.

:exactly: same here!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4203506.stm

Witnesses: New Orleans cops among looters
At least a dozen officers investigated; TV video used in probe

NEW ORLEANS (CNN) -- Four New Orleans police officers have been suspended and one has been reassigned over allegations of looting in the chaos after Hurricane Katrina, acting Police Superintendent Warren Riley said Thursday.

The city's police department is investigating reports that at least 12 police officers may have gone on a looting spree in the days after the storm hit.

The probe began after police officials reviewed videos from news reports, Riley said, without elaborating.

Meanwhile, Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. acknowledged his office was investigating "two separate incidents of potential looting by law enforcement" but would not identify the jurisdictions involved.

The officers are alleged to have taken non-essential items like televisions or jewelry or to not have acted against looting.

Riley promised "swift and decisive action" against any violators, saying, "There is zero tolerance for misconduct or unprofessionalism by any member of this department."

His announcement of the probe came two days after the abrupt resignation of police superintendent Eddie Compass. Mayor Ray Nagin named Riley to replace him.

A department spokesman said Compass' resignation was not related to the looting probe. Riley also called the reports that some 250 officers abandoned their duties "simply not true." He said a list of those officers was being examined to identify deserters, adding that some were off the job for legitimate reasons.

"When we lost telephone service and radio communication, some officers were stranded on their rooftops for four to five days, stranded in areas around the water due to rising water or displaced into other units or divisions," Riley said.

"We had to rescue our own police officers," Riley said. "Clearly, not everyone on that list is a deserter."

At present, more than 1,400 police officers are working 12-hour shifts, along with federal agents and the military, he said.

"The more than 2,000 men and women of this agency stand united in not letting a very small segment of members tarnish the great reputation of this department," Riley said. He added that they should be commended for "30 days of tremendous challenges."

One incident that Foti's probe is focusing on took place at Amerihost Inn and Suites just days after the storm hit, said police spokesman Capt. Marlon DeFillo. It was captured on tape by a reporter from WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge and a photographer from WAFF-TV in Huntsville, Alabama.

Officials viewed the TV news video showing an officer reaching for a gun as he blocked media from a door to the 10th floor, where he and seven other police officers were thought to be staying, DeFillo said .(See the video behind the investigation -- 3:50)

The hotel's owner, Osman Khan, told CNN that on the night of August 29, when the city flooded, 70 police officers had moved into his Canal Street hotel. He said that 62 went out to fight looters and thugs on the streets, while eight launched a four-day drinking and looting binge.

"They'd leave [at] nine or 10 at night and come back 4:30 in the morning," carrying "everything from Adidas shoes to Rolex watches," Khan said.

The eight officers were drinking almost all of the time, said hotel engineer Perry Emery, and when he came to the men's 10th floor room to bring towels, he saw "jewelry, generators, fans."

"One time they came back with a bunch of weapons," Emery said. He said he had no doubts about what he witnessed: "These were New Orleans police officers -- looting."

One generator, Khan said, was stolen -- as he watched -- from Tulane University Hospital next door. He added that the officers ran an extension cord to a refrigerator in their room to keep their beer cold.

The reporter and photographer who confronted the police officer at the 10th-floor door reported that a source told them the people inside the room were New Orleans police.

Several other witnesses said police are continuing to loot unoccupied homes.

Erlaine McLaurin said she saw two police cars pull up to an apartment building down the street from where she lives. Then she and her father watched as two officers walked inside and came out with their arms full.

"They [filled] up the white car, the police car," McLaurin said. "He got a four-pack of soda, a microwave, CD player. Put that in," she said. "I know everybody that lives here. Ain't no cops live here."

In the building, seven of 12 apartment doors appear to have been kicked, pushed or battered off their frames. It did not appear likely that rescue workers broke down the doors because the neighborhood wasn't flooded.

City resident Steve Thomas said he watched police kick in the door to a Lower Garden District home. He has no doubt he saw the officers looting, he said.

"They got police escorts coming in here, breaking in houses and taking the stuff," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/29/nopd.looting/index.html

:nono:

A global reflection of mistakenly allowing scalawags to the force.

hahahhaha

:funnypost:

kala ko Pinoy cops lang nakakagawa ganyan!

Eh pati pala US cops na maganda na sweldo ay gahaman din.

These are only tip of the icerberg, there are US cops that are protectors if not members of the "Mafioso" who are in the payrolls of the Gambino outfit, who controls high profile business establishments including Hollywood.

Police say cocaine stolen from headquarters
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- About 20 kilos (44 pounds) of cocaine was stolen from federal police headquarters, two weeks after nearly $1 million vanished from the same building, police said Wednesday.

The cocaine was stored in downtown Rio de Janeiro since 2004, and police were awaiting a court order to destroy the drug. The thieves replaced the cocaine with another substance, possibly caffeine, police said.

Police Superintendent Jose Milton Rodrigues said in an interview with the Rio daily O Globo that it was "95 percent" certain that police agents were responsible for the robbery but that police couldn't prove it yet.

Rodrigues said 13 high-level inspectors would be transferred from Rio.

On September 26, federal police discovered that nearly $1 million was missing from police headquarters in Rio, days after agents seized the cash and more than a ton of cocaine in the city's biggest drug bust.
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Sounds familiar :drunk:

It's not news to some.

Bulgarian cops steal U.S. ambassador’s phone
Confession comes after tracking device led to phone — in thief’s pocket!

SOFIA, Bulgaria - Two Bulgarian border policemen caught red-handed after stealing a mobile telephone belonging to U.S. Ambassador John Beyrle could face up to 10 years in prison, officials said Monday.

The two took the expensive telephone after Beyrle left it by an X-ray machine at Varna airport, where they worked.

They denied having seen the phone when the ambassador called to enquire about it, but the hi-tech gadget’s inbuilt tracking system led to its eventual location in one of the men’s pockets.

Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry said the two policemen would be fired and their superiors disciplined following the incident.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9725730/

In every corner of the world there are always "Thieves "and" Police Thieves" the difference between the two is that the latter is in uniform.

When we were in Indonesia back in 1986, we noticed that police there was just as corrupt, if not more so. It's not only here that corruption is rampant; IMO I think corruption in Indonesia was twice as that, at least it was during Suharto's time.

It is an endemic incurable cancer in a corrupt system.

Homeland official arrested in online sex sting
Agency's deputy press secretary held for soliciting for a child on Internet

MIAMI - The deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was arrested Tuesday for using the Internet to seduce what he thought was a teenage girl, authorities said.

Brian J. Doyle, 55, was arrested at his residence in Maryland on charges of use of a computer to seduce a child and transmission of harmful material to a minor. The charges were issued out of Polk County, Fla.

Authorities said he was online with the “girl,” a Florida undercover sheriff’s deputy, when police arrived at his Silver Spring, Md., house to arrest him.
Story continues below ↓ advertisement

Doyle had a sexually explicit conversation with what he believed was a 14-year-old girl whose profile he saw on the Internet on March 14, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

The girl was really an undercover Polk County Sheriff’s Computer Crimes detective, the sheriff’s office said.

Pornographic movie clips
Doyle sent pornographic movie clips and had sexually explicit conversations via the Internet, the statement said.

During other online conversations, Doyle revealed his name, that he worked for the Homeland Security Department, and offered his office and government issued cell phone numbers, the sheriff’s office said.

Doyle also sent photos of himself that were not sexually explicit, authorities said. One photo, which authorities released to the news media, shows Doyle in what appears to be homeland security headquarters. He is wearing a homeland security pin on his lapel and a lanyard that says “TSA.”

The Transportation Security Administration is part of the Homeland Security Department.

On several occasions, Doyle instructed the girl to perform a sexual act while thinking of him and described explicit activities he wanted to have with her, investigators said.

Doyle later had a telephone conversation with an undercover deputy posing as the teenager and encouraged her to purchase a Web camera to send graphic images of herself to him, the sheriff’s office said.

Web cam
Carrie Rodgers, a sheriff’s spokeswoman, said an undercover detective posing as the girl call Doyle at work Tuesday and said “she had gotten the web camera like he told her and her mom wouldn’t be home that night and she wanted to try it out.”

“He said he would get on the computer when he got home from work so we knew he would be on,” Rodgers said. “When (police) went to his door, he was on the computer in the middle of a conversation with the girl.”

He was booked into Maryland’s Montgomery County jail where he was waiting to be extradited to Florida, the sheriff’s office said.

There was no immediate response to messages left on Doyle’s government-issued cell phone and his e-mail, and he could not be reached by phone at the jail for comment.

Homeland Security press secretary Russ Knocke in Washington said he could not comment on the details of the investigation. “We take these allegations very seriously, and we will cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation,” Knocke said.

Washington television stations showed footage of police escorting Doyle from his home in handcuffs. One arresting officer carried a large box. Doyle was bent over in the front seat of the police vehicle in an apparent attempt to hide his face.

Doyle, who is the fourth-ranking official in the department’s public affairs office, was expected to be placed on administrative leave Wednesday morning.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12159118/

Securing every home, in the land of the free and the brave. :armyroleyes: