Election 2007: Watching and waiting
UPDATE:
Ward One:
Dom Betro: 2,260 (+1)
Mike Gardner: 2,259
Ward Seven:
Steve Adams: 1,326 (+23)
Terry Frizzel: 1,303
Smallest margin of victory was by Bob Buster, Ward Four, four votes.
For those of you awaiting election results in Wards One and Seven, you might as well pull out the lawn chairs and relax because the official results might not be announced until late next week.
Yes, you read that correctly. The provisional ballots still await counting as do absentee ballots today. So the fate of the city in terms of who will represent remains undecided. One estimate was that the provisional ballots for Riverside could be as high as 400 divided among the odd-numbered wards. Half of those are expected to be tossed for a myriad of reasons.
(excerpt)
In the latest unofficial tallies, Ward 1 challenger Mike Gardner was leading Councilman Dom Betro by 27 votes, and Ward 7 Councilman Steve Adams was ahead of challenger Terry Frizzel by 26 votes.
But there are potentially hundreds of ballots in both races still to be counted, said Rebecca Martine, the county's chief deputy registrar. With more people voting absentee, it takes longer to get final counts, Martine said. The registrar of voters has by law until Nov. 26 to certify the election.
The remaining absentee ballots, which were turned in at the polls Tuesday, will be counted today, Martine said. Officials have been verifying signatures, Martine said.
In Ward 1, an estimated 157 absentee ballots are uncounted; in Ward 7, the estimate is 128. In the Ward 5 and Ward 3 races, the uncounted absentees ballots are too few to change the result.
But even after all absentees are tallied, there are still 2,337 countywide provisional ballots that must be counted, Martine said. The registrar's office hopes to count them by late next week.
Isn't that interesting particularly in Frizzel's case that she was declared the loser early on by the Press Enterprise, but is back in the thick of things? And what of Ward One, a race that was supposed to punctuate the success of development downtown? Reality didn't turn out to be so simple or neat.
The Inland Empire Craigslist has been fairly quiet since the county began counting the ballots for the city council elections but today, there was this comment on several issues by a "disgusted and fedup Ward 1 resident". The posting raises some interesting points but the reality is, that if there weren't a large number of unhappy Ward One voters upset or unhappy with the status quo of the past four years, we probably wouldn't be sitting on our nerves awaiting the final vote which may still be one week away. Another notable thing is that that Betro is credited for all that is viewed as positive in his ward but when it comes to the more obvious negative things, it's the city council's fault because he's one of seven people on the dais who vote on agenda items including those impacting his ward. There is definitely truth to that but there's also truth to the fact that many of the accomplishments were made possible through the same process.
This person prayed for God to help them, if Gardner was elected. But God doesn't elect city officials, people do. As one person who also supported Betro noted here, the vote is the voice of the people.
Not to mention, no one has won or lost yet in the two remaining wards to be decided. But whatever the outcome is, what are Ward One residents going to do next? What are the Ward Seven residents going to do next? What are they going to do to come to terms that not all people agree? Especially given that people derided as the "fringe", "outside agitators", "those who foster divisiveness", "those who are part of the problem, not part of the solution", "those Betro haters" apparently decided to let their voting at the polls to do the talking?
And people seemed to be shocked at the results when they shouldn't be. They wouldn't have been if they'd been paying attention to what was in front of them.
However, responsibility rides on the people classified in these categories as well to do their part to dialogue and work with those in the other camp, not to mention the hundreds of people in between, including many who didn't vote given that county-wide, voter turnout averaged about 21%.
These questions should be asked, even after the election results are certified as final. These questions should be asked, even after the results are known.
Hold each other accountable were the words that former Minneapolis Police Department officer, Michael W. Quinn told an ethics class, according to the Sun Herald.
Quinn, who wrote the excellent tome, Walking with the Devil: The Police Code of Silence, addressed a classroom filled with law enforcement officers not long after a scandal shook the Gulfport Police Department. The police chief of that agency read Quinn's book and said it had such a strong impact on him, he uses it to teach his officers.
Now the author of that book is here to do some teaching as well.
(excerpt)
"A good cop doesn't cover for another officer," Quinn told 175 Gulfport police officers in an ethics class last week. "A good cop steps in and says 'stop' and doesn't try to cover anything up.
"No matter what, it's not OK to lie to get the job done."
Quinn, a retired Minneapolis police veteran, is an ethics trainer, community college instructor and author of a book on the code of silence, "Walking With the Devil: What Bad Cops Don't Want You to Know and Good Cops Won't Tell You."
The code of silence is unwritten but real, said Quinn in four-hour sessions that count toward the Gulfport officers' annual training requirements. Quinn said he hopes the lessons have a lasting positive impact.
Quinn said he realizes talk about the code of silence "strikes a raw nerve in Harrison County." He was referring to a former county jailer's recent conviction on a death under color of law and guilty pleas of nine others in a conspiracy to deprive inmates' civil and constitutional rights. All 10 will be sentenced next month.
"It was an aberration," said Quinn, noting he occasionally hears of similar cases, but seldom involving as many officers over a prolonged period.
"It's a blot on Mississippi. I'm not saying they were all bad (officers). Something should have been done to stop it when it started, but people let it go on."
On the front page of Quinn's book, is this statement about what's inside.
What bad cops don't want you to know and good cops won't tell you.
Isn't that the truth? Far too often? But look what happens when officers like Quinn do come forwards and break the rule of silence? Look at what happened in the situation in Chicago surrounding Officer Jerome Finnigan, the one who was busted in a sting for trying to hire someone to kill another former officer who was going to blow the whistle on some serious misconduct.
Mark Brown, a columnist with the Chicago Sun-Times which has been busy detailing the corruption in that city's police department wrote this column in response to negative reaction by police department officers to an earlier column about corrupt police officers.
It included some comments he had received like this one.
(excerpt)
"As a police officer, I am embarrassed by the scandals that have been brought to light recently within the Chicago Police Department. I think most officers are.
Jerry Finnigan and his crew should be locked up and live life with the rest of the criminals. They are no different than any thug on the street. This behavior has been overlooked by our Office of Professional Standards, Internal Affairs Division and top brass for years and years. It's called politics.
The Feds should step in and look at every case handled through OPS and IAD. You'd be surprised. By allowing these officers to get away with their bad behavior once, these officers continue on because they know there's no punishment for them.
They know the right people to get them out of it. We don't trust our own department. When incidents like this hit the news, it makes it harder for us, the honest police officers out there trying to do the right thing."
Cindy P.
Maybe people like Brown question the integrity of a police agency awash in corruption as is the case in Chicago and other cities like Atlanta, Georgia or Maywood, California, because the police officers who work in those cities haven't been able to do so or willing to step outside from behind the blue wall.
Maybe "Cindy P." has raised a good point and clearly has reached a frustration point where she's eager for that one thing most police agencies loathe most, which is outside intervention from an outside agency like those under the federal umbrella. However, if exposing bad officers makes it more difficult for honest police officers out there trying to do the right thing, then sweeping them under the carpet makes it more difficult for communities to trust honest police officers out there trying to do the right thing.
Here are Quinn's 10 myths of policing that he includes and expands upon in his book.
Street Justice teaches people a lesson.
The courts won't punish people so the police must.
Cops who deal with a lot of bad guys always draw a lot more complaints.
Swearing and cursing are always necessary in police work.
Use of racial and other derogatory slurs is ok as long as it is not on the job.
Once you are in the code of silence group, you can't get out.
Tougher law enforcement is the answer.
Leadership means you have to be promoted and be the toughest SOB on the shift.
People only respect what they fear.
You need to be macho to be a good cop.
Each one of these "myths" will be addressed in future postings. I was reading this article involving Quinn's outreach to other law enforcement agencies which face the issues and decisions that he did when he worked for Minneapolis after hearing of an incident of alleged excessive force involving a young man in the Eastside who was allegedly struck multiple times with a baton several weeks ago by one officer.
The department is doing some sort of administrative inquiry into the alleged incident.
A police union doesn't have to represent an officer in a disciplinary process. So said a San Francisco Superior Court judge who ruled that Officer Andrew Cohen can't force the San Francisco Police Officers' Association to represent him in his case stemming from his production of several racist and sexist videos that brought national attention to the department in 2005.
(excerpt)
Cohen said Tuesday that he plans to appeal the ruling. He added the ruling was based on the fact that the Police Officers Association's bylaws give it broad discretion over which officers it chooses to represent.
"My lawsuit was about challenging how much power and discretion the POA has when it comes to representing officers," Cohen said. "To me, officers who pay their dues are under the impression that they will get representation in time of need when, instead, a POA screening committee made up of the POA's executive board decides if you get to be represented."
The association did not respond to a Chronicle request for comment about why it decided not to represent Cohen, but POA President Gary Delagnes has said in the past that Cohen "obviously does not care about the serious implications of posting these skits on the Web."
In one of the most disgraceful developments in a situation that's seen so many of them was the defense offered by one of the police department's high ranking employees.
(excerpt)
Before Busch's ruling that threw out Cohen's case, the officer had picked up some support for his position that his video work was part of his regular duties.
Former Bayview police Capt. Rick Bruce made a declaration in Cohen's case against the Police Officers Association that asserted Cohen had "blanket authorization" to use police vehicles and locations in his videos. Bruce also said Cohen was performing within the "scope of his employment when he filmed and produced the videos."
Bruce stated that he retired as captain of Bayview at the end of August 2005, but before that, he had twice approved Cohen's requests for video supplies that year. He added that the Bayview station had "morale issues, and Officer Cohen's videos, both documentary and comedic, were a benefit to the overall level of morale."
Thankfully, Bruce is no longer with the police department.
In Columbia, Missouri, the mayor has picked 15 people to serve on a committee to review the idea of civilian oversight over that city's police department, according to the Columbia Tribune. Several city council members said they wished that this body could have provided greater input in the selection process.
(excerpt)
"It’s a very emotional issue," Skala said. "It just so happened that out of more than 50 applicants, the chair was an appointee. His credentials are impeccable, but I just thought all of them should have submitted applications for review."
Hindman said he made it clear that he would look outside of the applicants for the committee because he was concerned with making it balanced.
"I wanted the flexibility to make it as balanced as possible," Hindman said. "If you go just with applicants, you might get nine out of 10 all male or all from a particular ward."
Hindman said the pool of more than 50 applicants was one of the largest he has seen, which helped him choose mostly from that pool. Hindman said he also considered suggestions made by fellow council members after they reviewed the applications.
Whom do you believe?
That's the question asked by the Chicago Sun-Times in an article that it published addressing the disappearance of Stacey Peterson, 23 which occurred two days after she asked her sister if she should divorce her husband, Drew Peterson, 53 who is a sergeant with the Bolingbrook Police Department.
This wasn't the first time that something suspicious happened to one of Peterson's wives.
(excerpt)
Besides the disappearance of his wife, Drew Peterson is also dealing with Will County prosecutors' decision to take another look at the 2004 drowning death of his ex-wife, Kathleen Savio.
Savio's relatives say they have always doubted the official conclusion that her death was accidental.
"I just have to live through it," Drew Peterson said of the renewed suspicions.
As for Stacy Peterson, Illinois State Police said Wednesday they have used tracking dogs and an airplane equipped with a heat-sensing device to search for the 5-foot-2-inch tall, 100-pound woman, but have not located her.
Investigators have found no signs of foul play.
On one point, Stacy Peterson's family agreed with her husband: Stacy was deeply depressed, "lost and confused," according to one relative. But they say she was troubled because her husband was watching her every move, and she wanted out of their four-year marriage.
"She just wanted people to know she was unhappy, and she didn't like how she was being treated," said her aunt, Candace Aikin, 48, of El Monte, Calif. "In case she disappeared -- if something bad happened to her."
One disturbing trait that Savio and Peterson shared was that before they died or disappeared, they had confided in relatives that they feared for their safety and they wanted people to know that in case anything happened to them, like they disappeared one day. For Stacey, the day she was last seen was Oct. 28.
Drew Peterson and his team of attorneys did visit the courthouse for undisclosed reasons. A search warrant was also executed to search the couple's home on Nov. 6.
Peterson said that foul play did not play a role in his wife's disappearance and his ex-wife's death. He said that Stacey was where she wanted to be.
Wherever she's at, she's left a family behind filled with fear and questions. Her sister told one reporter that she didn't expect to see her sister again at least not alive. Searches have been conducted in various places to find any trace of Stacey Peterson.
The body of Savio may be exumed for further investigation into exactly how she died and at whose hands if her death wasn't an accidental drowning after all.
(excerpt, Chicago Sun-Times)
When Susan Savio got the news that her sister had drowned in her bathtub, she immediately wanted to know one thing: Did Drew Peterson kill her?
Kathleen Savio had told family "that if she would die, it may look like an accident, but it wasn't," Susan Savio said in a newly released transcript from a coroner's inquest into the death of Kathleen Savio, Peterson's third wife, who died in 2004 after they divorced.
"She was terrified of that -- [of] him and him threatening her," Susan Savio said.
The documents were released Thursday as Will County officials considered exhuming Kathleen Savio's body. Her unusual death is getting a second look as teams search for Peterson's current wife, Stacy, missing since Oct. 28.
Savio's relatives say Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow told them Thursday he had decided to exhume the body. The prosecutor's office could not be reached to confirm that.
"We want this to be very private," said Melissa Doman, Kathleen Savio's niece. "We had to bury her once, and we don't want a media circus."
Here is a site with more information on this case.
A child molestation sting busted a Los Angeles County Sheriff deputy.
The Los Angeles Police Department has announced plans to map out what it called "at risk" communities including Muslims, according to the Los Angeles Times.
This action has caused furor in Muslim circles, along with protests that what the LAPD is doing is akin to racial profling. It's objective is not to encourage the isolation of "Muslim enclaves", the department stated, but through this type of action, that's exactly what it might be doing.
(excerpt)
Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing, who heads the bureau, defended the undertaking as a way to help Muslim communities avoid the influence of those who would radicalize Islamic residents and advocate "violent, ideologically-based extremism."
"We are seeking to identify at-risk communities," Downing said in an interview Thursday evening. "We are looking for communities and enclaves based on risk factors that are likely to become isolated. . . . We want to know where the Pakistanis, Iranians and Chechens are so we can reach out to those communities."
Downing added that the Muslim Public Affairs Council has embraced the vaguely defined program "in concept." The group's executive director, Salam Al-Marayati, said Thursday that it wanted to know more about the plan and had a meeting set with the LAPD next week.
"We will work with the LAPD and give them input, while at the same time making sure that people's civil liberties are protected," said Al-Marayati, who commended Downing for being "very forthright in his engagement with the Muslim community."
Others condemned the project, however.
"We certainly reject this idea completely," said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. "This stems basically from this presumption that there is homogenized Muslim terrorism that exists among us."
Syed said he is a member of Police Chief William J. Bratton's forum of religious advisors, but had not been told of the community mapping program. "This came as a jolt to me," Syed said.
Hussam Ayloush, who leads the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the mapping "basically turns the LAPD officers into religious political analysts, while their role is to fight crime and enforce the laws."
Ward One:
Dom Betro: 2,260 (+1)
Mike Gardner: 2,259
Ward Seven:
Steve Adams: 1,326 (+23)
Terry Frizzel: 1,303
Smallest margin of victory was by Bob Buster, Ward Four, four votes.
For those of you awaiting election results in Wards One and Seven, you might as well pull out the lawn chairs and relax because the official results might not be announced until late next week.
Yes, you read that correctly. The provisional ballots still await counting as do absentee ballots today. So the fate of the city in terms of who will represent remains undecided. One estimate was that the provisional ballots for Riverside could be as high as 400 divided among the odd-numbered wards. Half of those are expected to be tossed for a myriad of reasons.
(excerpt)
In the latest unofficial tallies, Ward 1 challenger Mike Gardner was leading Councilman Dom Betro by 27 votes, and Ward 7 Councilman Steve Adams was ahead of challenger Terry Frizzel by 26 votes.
But there are potentially hundreds of ballots in both races still to be counted, said Rebecca Martine, the county's chief deputy registrar. With more people voting absentee, it takes longer to get final counts, Martine said. The registrar of voters has by law until Nov. 26 to certify the election.
The remaining absentee ballots, which were turned in at the polls Tuesday, will be counted today, Martine said. Officials have been verifying signatures, Martine said.
In Ward 1, an estimated 157 absentee ballots are uncounted; in Ward 7, the estimate is 128. In the Ward 5 and Ward 3 races, the uncounted absentees ballots are too few to change the result.
But even after all absentees are tallied, there are still 2,337 countywide provisional ballots that must be counted, Martine said. The registrar's office hopes to count them by late next week.
Isn't that interesting particularly in Frizzel's case that she was declared the loser early on by the Press Enterprise, but is back in the thick of things? And what of Ward One, a race that was supposed to punctuate the success of development downtown? Reality didn't turn out to be so simple or neat.
The Inland Empire Craigslist has been fairly quiet since the county began counting the ballots for the city council elections but today, there was this comment on several issues by a "disgusted and fedup Ward 1 resident". The posting raises some interesting points but the reality is, that if there weren't a large number of unhappy Ward One voters upset or unhappy with the status quo of the past four years, we probably wouldn't be sitting on our nerves awaiting the final vote which may still be one week away. Another notable thing is that that Betro is credited for all that is viewed as positive in his ward but when it comes to the more obvious negative things, it's the city council's fault because he's one of seven people on the dais who vote on agenda items including those impacting his ward. There is definitely truth to that but there's also truth to the fact that many of the accomplishments were made possible through the same process.
This person prayed for God to help them, if Gardner was elected. But God doesn't elect city officials, people do. As one person who also supported Betro noted here, the vote is the voice of the people.
Not to mention, no one has won or lost yet in the two remaining wards to be decided. But whatever the outcome is, what are Ward One residents going to do next? What are the Ward Seven residents going to do next? What are they going to do to come to terms that not all people agree? Especially given that people derided as the "fringe", "outside agitators", "those who foster divisiveness", "those who are part of the problem, not part of the solution", "those Betro haters" apparently decided to let their voting at the polls to do the talking?
And people seemed to be shocked at the results when they shouldn't be. They wouldn't have been if they'd been paying attention to what was in front of them.
However, responsibility rides on the people classified in these categories as well to do their part to dialogue and work with those in the other camp, not to mention the hundreds of people in between, including many who didn't vote given that county-wide, voter turnout averaged about 21%.
These questions should be asked, even after the election results are certified as final. These questions should be asked, even after the results are known.
Hold each other accountable were the words that former Minneapolis Police Department officer, Michael W. Quinn told an ethics class, according to the Sun Herald.
Quinn, who wrote the excellent tome, Walking with the Devil: The Police Code of Silence, addressed a classroom filled with law enforcement officers not long after a scandal shook the Gulfport Police Department. The police chief of that agency read Quinn's book and said it had such a strong impact on him, he uses it to teach his officers.
Now the author of that book is here to do some teaching as well.
(excerpt)
"A good cop doesn't cover for another officer," Quinn told 175 Gulfport police officers in an ethics class last week. "A good cop steps in and says 'stop' and doesn't try to cover anything up.
"No matter what, it's not OK to lie to get the job done."
Quinn, a retired Minneapolis police veteran, is an ethics trainer, community college instructor and author of a book on the code of silence, "Walking With the Devil: What Bad Cops Don't Want You to Know and Good Cops Won't Tell You."
The code of silence is unwritten but real, said Quinn in four-hour sessions that count toward the Gulfport officers' annual training requirements. Quinn said he hopes the lessons have a lasting positive impact.
Quinn said he realizes talk about the code of silence "strikes a raw nerve in Harrison County." He was referring to a former county jailer's recent conviction on a death under color of law and guilty pleas of nine others in a conspiracy to deprive inmates' civil and constitutional rights. All 10 will be sentenced next month.
"It was an aberration," said Quinn, noting he occasionally hears of similar cases, but seldom involving as many officers over a prolonged period.
"It's a blot on Mississippi. I'm not saying they were all bad (officers). Something should have been done to stop it when it started, but people let it go on."
On the front page of Quinn's book, is this statement about what's inside.
What bad cops don't want you to know and good cops won't tell you.
Isn't that the truth? Far too often? But look what happens when officers like Quinn do come forwards and break the rule of silence? Look at what happened in the situation in Chicago surrounding Officer Jerome Finnigan, the one who was busted in a sting for trying to hire someone to kill another former officer who was going to blow the whistle on some serious misconduct.
Mark Brown, a columnist with the Chicago Sun-Times which has been busy detailing the corruption in that city's police department wrote this column in response to negative reaction by police department officers to an earlier column about corrupt police officers.
It included some comments he had received like this one.
(excerpt)
"As a police officer, I am embarrassed by the scandals that have been brought to light recently within the Chicago Police Department. I think most officers are.
Jerry Finnigan and his crew should be locked up and live life with the rest of the criminals. They are no different than any thug on the street. This behavior has been overlooked by our Office of Professional Standards, Internal Affairs Division and top brass for years and years. It's called politics.
The Feds should step in and look at every case handled through OPS and IAD. You'd be surprised. By allowing these officers to get away with their bad behavior once, these officers continue on because they know there's no punishment for them.
They know the right people to get them out of it. We don't trust our own department. When incidents like this hit the news, it makes it harder for us, the honest police officers out there trying to do the right thing."
Cindy P.
Maybe people like Brown question the integrity of a police agency awash in corruption as is the case in Chicago and other cities like Atlanta, Georgia or Maywood, California, because the police officers who work in those cities haven't been able to do so or willing to step outside from behind the blue wall.
Maybe "Cindy P." has raised a good point and clearly has reached a frustration point where she's eager for that one thing most police agencies loathe most, which is outside intervention from an outside agency like those under the federal umbrella. However, if exposing bad officers makes it more difficult for honest police officers out there trying to do the right thing, then sweeping them under the carpet makes it more difficult for communities to trust honest police officers out there trying to do the right thing.
Here are Quinn's 10 myths of policing that he includes and expands upon in his book.
Street Justice teaches people a lesson.
The courts won't punish people so the police must.
Cops who deal with a lot of bad guys always draw a lot more complaints.
Swearing and cursing are always necessary in police work.
Use of racial and other derogatory slurs is ok as long as it is not on the job.
Once you are in the code of silence group, you can't get out.
Tougher law enforcement is the answer.
Leadership means you have to be promoted and be the toughest SOB on the shift.
People only respect what they fear.
You need to be macho to be a good cop.
Each one of these "myths" will be addressed in future postings. I was reading this article involving Quinn's outreach to other law enforcement agencies which face the issues and decisions that he did when he worked for Minneapolis after hearing of an incident of alleged excessive force involving a young man in the Eastside who was allegedly struck multiple times with a baton several weeks ago by one officer.
The department is doing some sort of administrative inquiry into the alleged incident.
A police union doesn't have to represent an officer in a disciplinary process. So said a San Francisco Superior Court judge who ruled that Officer Andrew Cohen can't force the San Francisco Police Officers' Association to represent him in his case stemming from his production of several racist and sexist videos that brought national attention to the department in 2005.
(excerpt)
Cohen said Tuesday that he plans to appeal the ruling. He added the ruling was based on the fact that the Police Officers Association's bylaws give it broad discretion over which officers it chooses to represent.
"My lawsuit was about challenging how much power and discretion the POA has when it comes to representing officers," Cohen said. "To me, officers who pay their dues are under the impression that they will get representation in time of need when, instead, a POA screening committee made up of the POA's executive board decides if you get to be represented."
The association did not respond to a Chronicle request for comment about why it decided not to represent Cohen, but POA President Gary Delagnes has said in the past that Cohen "obviously does not care about the serious implications of posting these skits on the Web."
In one of the most disgraceful developments in a situation that's seen so many of them was the defense offered by one of the police department's high ranking employees.
(excerpt)
Before Busch's ruling that threw out Cohen's case, the officer had picked up some support for his position that his video work was part of his regular duties.
Former Bayview police Capt. Rick Bruce made a declaration in Cohen's case against the Police Officers Association that asserted Cohen had "blanket authorization" to use police vehicles and locations in his videos. Bruce also said Cohen was performing within the "scope of his employment when he filmed and produced the videos."
Bruce stated that he retired as captain of Bayview at the end of August 2005, but before that, he had twice approved Cohen's requests for video supplies that year. He added that the Bayview station had "morale issues, and Officer Cohen's videos, both documentary and comedic, were a benefit to the overall level of morale."
Thankfully, Bruce is no longer with the police department.
In Columbia, Missouri, the mayor has picked 15 people to serve on a committee to review the idea of civilian oversight over that city's police department, according to the Columbia Tribune. Several city council members said they wished that this body could have provided greater input in the selection process.
(excerpt)
"It’s a very emotional issue," Skala said. "It just so happened that out of more than 50 applicants, the chair was an appointee. His credentials are impeccable, but I just thought all of them should have submitted applications for review."
Hindman said he made it clear that he would look outside of the applicants for the committee because he was concerned with making it balanced.
"I wanted the flexibility to make it as balanced as possible," Hindman said. "If you go just with applicants, you might get nine out of 10 all male or all from a particular ward."
Hindman said the pool of more than 50 applicants was one of the largest he has seen, which helped him choose mostly from that pool. Hindman said he also considered suggestions made by fellow council members after they reviewed the applications.
Whom do you believe?
That's the question asked by the Chicago Sun-Times in an article that it published addressing the disappearance of Stacey Peterson, 23 which occurred two days after she asked her sister if she should divorce her husband, Drew Peterson, 53 who is a sergeant with the Bolingbrook Police Department.
This wasn't the first time that something suspicious happened to one of Peterson's wives.
(excerpt)
Besides the disappearance of his wife, Drew Peterson is also dealing with Will County prosecutors' decision to take another look at the 2004 drowning death of his ex-wife, Kathleen Savio.
Savio's relatives say they have always doubted the official conclusion that her death was accidental.
"I just have to live through it," Drew Peterson said of the renewed suspicions.
As for Stacy Peterson, Illinois State Police said Wednesday they have used tracking dogs and an airplane equipped with a heat-sensing device to search for the 5-foot-2-inch tall, 100-pound woman, but have not located her.
Investigators have found no signs of foul play.
On one point, Stacy Peterson's family agreed with her husband: Stacy was deeply depressed, "lost and confused," according to one relative. But they say she was troubled because her husband was watching her every move, and she wanted out of their four-year marriage.
"She just wanted people to know she was unhappy, and she didn't like how she was being treated," said her aunt, Candace Aikin, 48, of El Monte, Calif. "In case she disappeared -- if something bad happened to her."
One disturbing trait that Savio and Peterson shared was that before they died or disappeared, they had confided in relatives that they feared for their safety and they wanted people to know that in case anything happened to them, like they disappeared one day. For Stacey, the day she was last seen was Oct. 28.
Drew Peterson and his team of attorneys did visit the courthouse for undisclosed reasons. A search warrant was also executed to search the couple's home on Nov. 6.
Peterson said that foul play did not play a role in his wife's disappearance and his ex-wife's death. He said that Stacey was where she wanted to be.
Wherever she's at, she's left a family behind filled with fear and questions. Her sister told one reporter that she didn't expect to see her sister again at least not alive. Searches have been conducted in various places to find any trace of Stacey Peterson.
The body of Savio may be exumed for further investigation into exactly how she died and at whose hands if her death wasn't an accidental drowning after all.
(excerpt, Chicago Sun-Times)
When Susan Savio got the news that her sister had drowned in her bathtub, she immediately wanted to know one thing: Did Drew Peterson kill her?
Kathleen Savio had told family "that if she would die, it may look like an accident, but it wasn't," Susan Savio said in a newly released transcript from a coroner's inquest into the death of Kathleen Savio, Peterson's third wife, who died in 2004 after they divorced.
"She was terrified of that -- [of] him and him threatening her," Susan Savio said.
The documents were released Thursday as Will County officials considered exhuming Kathleen Savio's body. Her unusual death is getting a second look as teams search for Peterson's current wife, Stacy, missing since Oct. 28.
Savio's relatives say Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow told them Thursday he had decided to exhume the body. The prosecutor's office could not be reached to confirm that.
"We want this to be very private," said Melissa Doman, Kathleen Savio's niece. "We had to bury her once, and we don't want a media circus."
Here is a site with more information on this case.
A child molestation sting busted a Los Angeles County Sheriff deputy.
The Los Angeles Police Department has announced plans to map out what it called "at risk" communities including Muslims, according to the Los Angeles Times.
This action has caused furor in Muslim circles, along with protests that what the LAPD is doing is akin to racial profling. It's objective is not to encourage the isolation of "Muslim enclaves", the department stated, but through this type of action, that's exactly what it might be doing.
(excerpt)
Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing, who heads the bureau, defended the undertaking as a way to help Muslim communities avoid the influence of those who would radicalize Islamic residents and advocate "violent, ideologically-based extremism."
"We are seeking to identify at-risk communities," Downing said in an interview Thursday evening. "We are looking for communities and enclaves based on risk factors that are likely to become isolated. . . . We want to know where the Pakistanis, Iranians and Chechens are so we can reach out to those communities."
Downing added that the Muslim Public Affairs Council has embraced the vaguely defined program "in concept." The group's executive director, Salam Al-Marayati, said Thursday that it wanted to know more about the plan and had a meeting set with the LAPD next week.
"We will work with the LAPD and give them input, while at the same time making sure that people's civil liberties are protected," said Al-Marayati, who commended Downing for being "very forthright in his engagement with the Muslim community."
Others condemned the project, however.
"We certainly reject this idea completely," said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. "This stems basically from this presumption that there is homogenized Muslim terrorism that exists among us."
Syed said he is a member of Police Chief William J. Bratton's forum of religious advisors, but had not been told of the community mapping program. "This came as a jolt to me," Syed said.
Hussam Ayloush, who leads the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the mapping "basically turns the LAPD officers into religious political analysts, while their role is to fight crime and enforce the laws."
Labels: business as usual, City elections, civilian review spreads, Making the grade, public forums in all places
posted by Five Before Midnight | 10:23 AM
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