Bits and pieces here and there
People in the Inland Empire are responding to the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. She and at least 22 others were killed by a suicide attacker yesterday, after a political rally for her campaign for the prime minister seat.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
Mohammad Shoaib Siddiqui, a Riverside civil engineer and native of Pakistan, said he had hoped for a Bhutto victory in the upcoming elections.
In her earlier political life, Bhutto was beset by charges of corruption, but she had matured, said Siddiqui, 52, who watched the violence unfold Thursday on Pakistani television via satellite.
"It's a big tragic loss," he said. "She gave her life for democracy."
Rob Bernheimer, an Indian Wells city councilman, had the opportunity to dine with Bhutto in January 2006, after Bhutto addressed 1,800 people as part of a city-sponsored lecture series.
She was living in self-imposed exile in Dubai at the time, but it was evident to everyone that she was passionate about Pakistan and about returning to lead the country, Bernheimer said.
"She clearly had a calling inside her. You could see it inside her," he said.
During her speech, she spoke of the need for free elections and more democratic rule in Pakistan, Berheimer said. She also spoke of her pride in becoming the first woman elected leader in a Muslim country and her efforts to curb abuses of women in Pakistan.
Bernheimer said Bhutto was down to earth but also embodied a "sense of greatness," and was one of the most captivating speakers to attend the lecture series. The city has hosted other world leaders, including former President George H.W. Bush and former British prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
Have late library books? There's a food for fines program in place temporarily at Riverside's public libraries. So rush your food items to the library with your overdue books.
The pace to implement Boston's form of civilian review has been too slow stated a columnist with the Boston-Bay State Banner. Boston is one city which has added civilian review to its list of things to do this year along with others from coast to coast.
(excerpt)
The past year did see some movement in the development of the city’s long awaited three-member civilian board charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct by members of the Boston Police Department (BPD).
But some critics in the community found the pace glacial — and troubling.
Headlining the plus side of the ledger: the board now actually exists. Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced plans to create the panel in August 2006, but it wasn’t officially established until this March, when the mayor signed an executive order bringing the newly named Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel (CO-OP) to life.
“It is in the best interest of the City of Boston and the Boston Police Department to have an oversight mechanism to build trust and confidence within the community,” Menino wrote in the order.
As mentioned previously, San Bernardino's residents have started their journey down that road as well to follow that taken by Riverside nearly nine years ago. In fact it was nine years ago at 2 a.m. this morning when the shots were fired by four Riverside Police Department officers into the car and the body of a Black teenaged woman that would be heard around the world, putting Riverside in a spotlight it didn't want. Tyisha Shenee Miller, 19, inside her aunt's car in medical distress with a gun that she might have felt safer with as a woman sitting alone in a broken down car in the middle of the night, was shot about a dozen times with all the bullets entering the back of her head or her body. At least 24 shots and some say more, fired in all in a matter of seconds on a chilly December morning.
Nine years, multiple investigations, one stipulated judgment and a civilian review board later, how much has Riverside and its police department changed?
The police department is mostly new. The city government's management is all new, as is the city council save for one elected official still remaining on the dais who witnessed first-hand the incident and its aftermath that shook the city to its core. Even the city council elected in reaction to the state of chaos and problems involving the then city council in the midst of it, is on its way out having not enjoyed a very long stint in power for reasons probably having little to do with police issues.
The main police union, where the leadership on average is still comprised of much more experienced officers than its membership at large, has seen two presidents with different leadership styles come and go and will soon have a new one, who will run it for the next two years. The current police chief who came on after a tumultuous series of events led to the ouster of his predecessor still remains in his position. The year that he arrived, 2000, had already seen three other high-ranking management level officers, both inside and out of it, lead or try to lead the department through a political minefield.
The civilian review board, the Community Police Review Commission, passed a couple tests of fire including a ballot measure passed by the city's voters in 2004 about four years after it was created by the city council through ordinance. The initiative won in all the city's precincts, surprising considering there should have been a few places in several wards where it should have faced a more aggressive challenge than it did. However, as has been seen, that was the beginning of a new chapter of challenges it would face coming from the city which birthed it.
The Los Angeles Times did an indepth article on the events surrounding the filing of corruption charges against Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona and the two women in his life.
(excerpt)
Both women appeared at official functions together, the wife often sitting in the first row, Hoffman in the second. Photographers working for the Sheriff's Department sometimes snapped photos of the two women together and sometimes of both posing with the sheriff.
But just beyond public view, associates say, the sheriff's behavior with his mistress was reckless, even defiant: a trip to Las Vegas, text messages and pet names.
Now, Carona, his wife and mistress have been accused in a broad public conspiracy case that alleges that the sheriff sold his office for a stream of gifts and money. All three have pleaded not guilty and said they expect to prevail at trial. Carona, his wife and Hoffman all declined to be interviewed for this story.
On the morning after he was charged, Carona was ushered into a courtroom ordinarily reserved for drug runners, bank robbers -- the sorts of alleged criminals the sheriff had spent years trying to sweep off the streets.
The two Debbies sat nearby. Like the sheriff, they were in handcuffs.
Letters, notes and photos left at the neighbors of former Bolingbrook sergeant, Drew Peterson were rejected by investigators as potential leads in the case of the disappearance of Peterson's wife, Stacey who's been missing since Oct. 28.
(excerpt, Chicago Tribune)
Pam Bosco, a spokeswoman for Stacy Peterson's family, said a man claiming responsibility for the items called police and told them he did it.
"It was somebody who had been following the case too closely -- he was very emotionally involved and had a belief of what happened to Stacy," Bosco said Thursday. "It wasn't a valid lead."
On Wednesday morning, two neighbors of the missing 23-year-old Bolingbrook mother found letters in their mailboxes that said she was in a graveyard. One neighbor also had dozens of 5-by-7-inch photos of grave sites littered in her yard.
Bosco said the family wasn't surprised that police had discounted the incident as a lead in the case.
"We had our hopes up and everything, but you had to expect it to some degree because valid tips and leads don't come in like that," she said.
A detective in New Haven, Connecticut is under internal investigation for allegedly misusing informant funds according to WTNH. Apparently, an officer in that department being investigated for misconduct isn't news as three others have already been fired for corrupt behavior.
Did two Dallas Police Department officers assault a popular country-western singer? That's what investigators are trying to determine according to the Dallas Morning News.
(excerpt)
"It appears that two unidentified Dallas police officers met the complainant at an off-duty social event and later went to the residence of the complainant," police spokesman Lt. Vernon Hale said in a prepared statement. "At some point, witnesses state that one of the men assaulted one of the hosts" at the home.
Lt. Hale offered little further information about the incident, but a 911 call record shows officers were dispatched about 5:30 a.m. to the Old East Dallas home that belongs to Mr. Holy. And through an attorney late Thursday, the singer said he and a friend were assaulted and gave his own account of what happened at the house in the 5700 block of Vickery Boulevard.
Steve Holy, the singer, said that he invited them along with other guests but that they got belligerent and attacked him.
(excerpt)
"Do you know who you're [expletive] with, you're [expletive] with a Dallas police officer," Mr. Holy told investigators the man yelled at him. He said the officers showed their badges.
The officer yelled to the second officer to bring him his gun from the car, according to the account, and soon the officers were holding Mr. Holy and his friend at gunpoint.
Mr. Holy told police one of the officers held a gun to the back of his head while he lay face down on the kitchen floor. At one point, he went upstairs, telling the officers he would get his identification, he said, and told his wife, who had been sleeping in a bedroom, to call 911.
Meanwhile, his friend escaped to the home of a neighbor, who called 911. The off-duty officers left before police arrived. According to Mr. Holy's account, they threatened him with retaliation should he tell anyone what happened.
The last jaunt of Toby the wild pig who occasionally wandered in the Woodcrest neighborhood. Shot not by police, but by a woman who was walking, while carrying a gun which she may have felt was needed to protect herself.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
Mohammad Shoaib Siddiqui, a Riverside civil engineer and native of Pakistan, said he had hoped for a Bhutto victory in the upcoming elections.
In her earlier political life, Bhutto was beset by charges of corruption, but she had matured, said Siddiqui, 52, who watched the violence unfold Thursday on Pakistani television via satellite.
"It's a big tragic loss," he said. "She gave her life for democracy."
Rob Bernheimer, an Indian Wells city councilman, had the opportunity to dine with Bhutto in January 2006, after Bhutto addressed 1,800 people as part of a city-sponsored lecture series.
She was living in self-imposed exile in Dubai at the time, but it was evident to everyone that she was passionate about Pakistan and about returning to lead the country, Bernheimer said.
"She clearly had a calling inside her. You could see it inside her," he said.
During her speech, she spoke of the need for free elections and more democratic rule in Pakistan, Berheimer said. She also spoke of her pride in becoming the first woman elected leader in a Muslim country and her efforts to curb abuses of women in Pakistan.
Bernheimer said Bhutto was down to earth but also embodied a "sense of greatness," and was one of the most captivating speakers to attend the lecture series. The city has hosted other world leaders, including former President George H.W. Bush and former British prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
Have late library books? There's a food for fines program in place temporarily at Riverside's public libraries. So rush your food items to the library with your overdue books.
The pace to implement Boston's form of civilian review has been too slow stated a columnist with the Boston-Bay State Banner. Boston is one city which has added civilian review to its list of things to do this year along with others from coast to coast.
(excerpt)
The past year did see some movement in the development of the city’s long awaited three-member civilian board charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct by members of the Boston Police Department (BPD).
But some critics in the community found the pace glacial — and troubling.
Headlining the plus side of the ledger: the board now actually exists. Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced plans to create the panel in August 2006, but it wasn’t officially established until this March, when the mayor signed an executive order bringing the newly named Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel (CO-OP) to life.
“It is in the best interest of the City of Boston and the Boston Police Department to have an oversight mechanism to build trust and confidence within the community,” Menino wrote in the order.
As mentioned previously, San Bernardino's residents have started their journey down that road as well to follow that taken by Riverside nearly nine years ago. In fact it was nine years ago at 2 a.m. this morning when the shots were fired by four Riverside Police Department officers into the car and the body of a Black teenaged woman that would be heard around the world, putting Riverside in a spotlight it didn't want. Tyisha Shenee Miller, 19, inside her aunt's car in medical distress with a gun that she might have felt safer with as a woman sitting alone in a broken down car in the middle of the night, was shot about a dozen times with all the bullets entering the back of her head or her body. At least 24 shots and some say more, fired in all in a matter of seconds on a chilly December morning.
Nine years, multiple investigations, one stipulated judgment and a civilian review board later, how much has Riverside and its police department changed?
The police department is mostly new. The city government's management is all new, as is the city council save for one elected official still remaining on the dais who witnessed first-hand the incident and its aftermath that shook the city to its core. Even the city council elected in reaction to the state of chaos and problems involving the then city council in the midst of it, is on its way out having not enjoyed a very long stint in power for reasons probably having little to do with police issues.
The main police union, where the leadership on average is still comprised of much more experienced officers than its membership at large, has seen two presidents with different leadership styles come and go and will soon have a new one, who will run it for the next two years. The current police chief who came on after a tumultuous series of events led to the ouster of his predecessor still remains in his position. The year that he arrived, 2000, had already seen three other high-ranking management level officers, both inside and out of it, lead or try to lead the department through a political minefield.
The civilian review board, the Community Police Review Commission, passed a couple tests of fire including a ballot measure passed by the city's voters in 2004 about four years after it was created by the city council through ordinance. The initiative won in all the city's precincts, surprising considering there should have been a few places in several wards where it should have faced a more aggressive challenge than it did. However, as has been seen, that was the beginning of a new chapter of challenges it would face coming from the city which birthed it.
The Los Angeles Times did an indepth article on the events surrounding the filing of corruption charges against Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona and the two women in his life.
(excerpt)
Both women appeared at official functions together, the wife often sitting in the first row, Hoffman in the second. Photographers working for the Sheriff's Department sometimes snapped photos of the two women together and sometimes of both posing with the sheriff.
But just beyond public view, associates say, the sheriff's behavior with his mistress was reckless, even defiant: a trip to Las Vegas, text messages and pet names.
Now, Carona, his wife and mistress have been accused in a broad public conspiracy case that alleges that the sheriff sold his office for a stream of gifts and money. All three have pleaded not guilty and said they expect to prevail at trial. Carona, his wife and Hoffman all declined to be interviewed for this story.
On the morning after he was charged, Carona was ushered into a courtroom ordinarily reserved for drug runners, bank robbers -- the sorts of alleged criminals the sheriff had spent years trying to sweep off the streets.
The two Debbies sat nearby. Like the sheriff, they were in handcuffs.
Letters, notes and photos left at the neighbors of former Bolingbrook sergeant, Drew Peterson were rejected by investigators as potential leads in the case of the disappearance of Peterson's wife, Stacey who's been missing since Oct. 28.
(excerpt, Chicago Tribune)
Pam Bosco, a spokeswoman for Stacy Peterson's family, said a man claiming responsibility for the items called police and told them he did it.
"It was somebody who had been following the case too closely -- he was very emotionally involved and had a belief of what happened to Stacy," Bosco said Thursday. "It wasn't a valid lead."
On Wednesday morning, two neighbors of the missing 23-year-old Bolingbrook mother found letters in their mailboxes that said she was in a graveyard. One neighbor also had dozens of 5-by-7-inch photos of grave sites littered in her yard.
Bosco said the family wasn't surprised that police had discounted the incident as a lead in the case.
"We had our hopes up and everything, but you had to expect it to some degree because valid tips and leads don't come in like that," she said.
A detective in New Haven, Connecticut is under internal investigation for allegedly misusing informant funds according to WTNH. Apparently, an officer in that department being investigated for misconduct isn't news as three others have already been fired for corrupt behavior.
Did two Dallas Police Department officers assault a popular country-western singer? That's what investigators are trying to determine according to the Dallas Morning News.
(excerpt)
"It appears that two unidentified Dallas police officers met the complainant at an off-duty social event and later went to the residence of the complainant," police spokesman Lt. Vernon Hale said in a prepared statement. "At some point, witnesses state that one of the men assaulted one of the hosts" at the home.
Lt. Hale offered little further information about the incident, but a 911 call record shows officers were dispatched about 5:30 a.m. to the Old East Dallas home that belongs to Mr. Holy. And through an attorney late Thursday, the singer said he and a friend were assaulted and gave his own account of what happened at the house in the 5700 block of Vickery Boulevard.
Steve Holy, the singer, said that he invited them along with other guests but that they got belligerent and attacked him.
(excerpt)
"Do you know who you're [expletive] with, you're [expletive] with a Dallas police officer," Mr. Holy told investigators the man yelled at him. He said the officers showed their badges.
The officer yelled to the second officer to bring him his gun from the car, according to the account, and soon the officers were holding Mr. Holy and his friend at gunpoint.
Mr. Holy told police one of the officers held a gun to the back of his head while he lay face down on the kitchen floor. At one point, he went upstairs, telling the officers he would get his identification, he said, and told his wife, who had been sleeping in a bedroom, to call 911.
Meanwhile, his friend escaped to the home of a neighbor, who called 911. The off-duty officers left before police arrived. According to Mr. Holy's account, they threatened him with retaliation should he tell anyone what happened.
The last jaunt of Toby the wild pig who occasionally wandered in the Woodcrest neighborhood. Shot not by police, but by a woman who was walking, while carrying a gun which she may have felt was needed to protect herself.
Labels: Backlash against civilian oversight, battering while blue, public forums in all places
posted by Five Before Midnight | 11:38 AM
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