tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47048581463684142322024-03-05T01:00:37.039-08:00Organized Crime in News The latest news of organized crime in the USAfriends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-30675514512598675252013-04-30T09:02:00.001-07:002013-04-30T09:02:02.712-07:00<div class="page" style="display: block;">
<span style="color: white;">ROME
(AP) — In the very moments Italy's new coalition government was being
sworn in, ending months of political paralysis in a country hoping to
revive a bleak economy, a middle-aged unemployed bricklayer opened fire
Sunday in the square outside the premier's office, seriously wounding
two policemen, authorities said.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">The
alleged gunman from Calabria, a southern region plagued by joblessness
and organized crime, told investigators he wanted to shoot politicians.
But finding none in the square, he instead shot at Carabinieri
paramilitary police.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">A
bullet pierced one of the policemen in the neck, passing through his
spinal column, doctors said, adding it wasn't yet known if the
50-year-old officer would have any paralysis. The other one was shot in
the leg and suffered a fracture.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">The newly sworn in interior minister, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fcrime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Angelino+Alfano%22">Angelino Alfano</a>,
said a preliminary investigation indicated the shooting, which also
slightly injured a pregnant bystander, amounted to a "tragic criminal
gesture of a 49-year-old unemployed" man.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">But
the shooting was also a violent expression of social tensions in Italy,
where unemployment is soaring, an increasing number of businesses are
shutting their doors permanently and new political corruption scandals
make headlines nearly every day.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">Politicians described the attack as a disturbing call to fix Italy's economy.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">"From what we understand, it's mainly personal problems, work, personal debts" that fueled the gunman's attack, said <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fcrime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Guglielmo+Epifani%22">Guglielmo Epifani</a>, a top official in Premier <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fcrime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Enrico+Letta%22">Enrico Letta</a>'s center-left <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fcrime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Democratic+Party%22">Democratic Party</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">Epifani
said in a state TV interview that while the financial crisis has caused
some to commit suicide, "this is the first time someone shoots to kill"
someone else "in a place filled with innocent people."</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">"The
symbolism is there," he said. The political world "must highlight its
responsibility during the crisis before the country," he said.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">In
brief comments to reporters after paying a hospital visit to the more
seriously wounded policeman, Letta said, "it is a moment in which each
must do one's own duty."</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">The
46-year-old Letta will speak to Parliament on Monday, laying out his
strategy to reduce joblessness while still sticking to the austerity
measures needed to keep the eurozone's No. 3 economy from descending
into a sovereign debt crisis. He will then face confidence votes needed
to confirm his government.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">Prosecutors
identified the gunman as Luigi Preiti. Jobless, with a broken marriage
and reportedly burdened by gambling debts he couldn't pay, Preiti had
recently returned from Italy's affluent north, where he could no longer
find work. He moved into his parents' home in Rosarno, a bleak Calabrian
farm town where unemployment was already endemic before the last years
of stagnation and recession sent youth unemployment soaring to nearly 40
percent nationwide.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">His
intended target was politicians, but with none in the square, he shot
at the Carabinieri paramilitary police, Rome Prosecutor <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fcrime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Pierfilippo+Laviani%22">Pierfilippo Laviani</a> told reporters, citing what he said Preiti told him when he questioned him.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">Preiti,
who was taken to the hospital for bruises, confessed to the shooting
and didn't appear mentally unbalanced, Laviani said.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">"He is a man full of problems, who lost his job, who lost everything," the prosecutor said. "He was desperate."</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">Mired
in recession and suffering from soaring unemployment, Italy had been in
political deadlock since an inconclusive February election. Social and
political tensions have been running high among voters divided among a
center-left bloc, conservative parties and an anti-establishment protest
movement, which capitalized on public disgust with politicians to
become Parliament's No. 3 force in its first national election bid.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Italian-policemen-shot-near-new-gov-t-swearing-in-4470056.php#ixzz2Rxm0qmFu">http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Italian-policemen-shot-near-new-gov-t-swearing-in-4470056.php#ixzz2Rxm0qmFu</a></span></div>
friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-10658056712694059482013-04-30T09:01:00.002-07:002013-04-30T09:01:09.922-07:00<div id="text-pages">
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<span style="color: white;">PRISTINA,
Kosovo (AP) — A court in Kosovo found two citizens guilty of human
trafficking and organized crime Monday in a major trial against seven
people suspected of running an international organ trafficking ring that
took kidneys from poor donors lured by financial promises.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">A panel of two <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fcrime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22European+Union%22">European Union</a> judges and one Kosovo judge sentenced urologist <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fcrime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Lutfi+Dervishi%22">Lutfi Dervishi</a> to eight years in prison and his son <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fcrime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Arban+Dervishi%22">Arban Dervishi</a>
to seven years and three months. Both also received fines, while Lutfi
Dervishi was barred from practicing urology for two years.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">A
third defendant, Sokol Hajdini, was sentenced to three years in jail
for causing grievous bodily harm. Two others received suspended
sentences, while two were freed. The defendants can appeal the verdicts
and they are not kept in custody.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">Organ
transplantation is illegal in Kosovo's private clinics. It is also rare
in public health facilities because of poor conditions.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">The trial began in December 2011 and included more than 100 witnesses. All the donors and recipients were foreign nationals.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">Seven
donors who testified were from Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan,
Belarus and Turkey. They described how they were flown into Kosovo from
Istanbul and then quickly wheeled into surgery in a medical facility
named "Medicus" on the outskirts of Kosovo's capital, Pristina.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">The victims were promised $10,000 to $12,000 in return for their kidneys, but many said they were never paid.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">"At
least two were cheated out of the entire amount and went home with no
money and only one kidney," the court said in its reasoning.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">The
donors' kidneys were removed for transplantation into people who paid
up to 130,000 euros for the procedure. The recipients were mostly
wealthy patients from places such as Israel, Poland, Canada, the U.S.
and Germany.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">The
court ordered that Lutfi and Arban Dervishi pay partial compensation of
15,000 euros to each of the seven victims who testified during the
proceedings. The victims may later seek additional compensation in
court, the panel said in its reasoning.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">At
least 24 kidney transplants, involving 48 donors and recipients, were
carried out between 2008 and 2009, the period the case covered.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">The
donors "were alone, did not speak the language, uncertain of what they
were doing and had no one to protect their interest," the court's
reasoning read. "Some donors had severe second thoughts at the clinic,
but were given no opportunity to back out and were psychologically
pressured into going forward with the surgery."</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">Most
of the names of donors and recipients were traced through documents
seized during a police raid into the clinic in 2008 acting to verify a
statement by a Turkish man that his kidney was removed. The man caught
police's attention when he collapsed at the Pristina airport.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">The
defendants are believed to have profited $1 million from the
transplants. It's unclear how many total donors and recipients
there were.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">"In every sense this was the cruel harvest of the poor and weak in our society," <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fcrime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Jonathan+Ratel%22">Jonathan Ratel</a>,
a Canadian prosecutor who brought the charges as part of European
Union's rule of law mission in Kosovo, said after the verdicts.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">He
alleged that the sole motive of the defendants was "obscene profit and
human greed." But the defendants claimed they were not guilty, arguing
that the donors came to Kosovo voluntarily and that the surgeries
saved lives.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">
</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Kosovo-3-get-jail-time-in-organ-trafficking-case-4472267.php#ixzz2RxljUUu4">http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Kosovo-3-get-jail-time-in-organ-trafficking-case-4472267.php#ixzz2RxljUUu4</a></span></div>
friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-83240404648931871342013-04-14T10:27:00.001-07:002013-04-14T10:27:17.962-07:00<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Western Balkan States Pledge Strengthened Fight against Organized Crime</b></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">TEHRAN (FNA)- Ministers of Interior and Justice from Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Albania pledged at a conference to strengthen their fight against organized crime in the region.</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Addressing the conference on Friday, Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said no individual effort against organized crime or corruption could be successful without the continued cooperation of colleagues in the region, the Serbian news agency Tanjug reported.<br /><br />"It seems to me that cooperation among police, prosecution and judicial officials is on a much higher level than cooperation among politicians," said Dacic, adding "I wish state officials cooperated in such a manner."<br /><br />Dacic, also Serbian Minister of Interior, emphasized the importance of establishing a regional arrest warrant, based on the European model.<br /><br />He also suggested the formation of joint investigation teams in the Western Balkan region that would improve the exchange of information and evidence for criminal proceedings.<br /><br />"The fight against corruption and crime will remain among the most important priorities of the government of Serbia and the state authorities," said Dacic, who signed an agreement on the readmission of persons residing in a neighboring state with Montenegrin Minister of Interior Rasko Konjevic.<br /><br />Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic called for a simplified extradition system in the region among other conventions to battle the increasingly "dangerous and better organized international crime".<br /><br />Meanwhile, justice ministers attending the conference signed a letter of intent for the ratification of the Regional Convention on the Recognition and cross-border enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.<br />Article from english.farsnews.com</span></div>
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friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-362241033628146472013-04-12T19:46:00.001-07:002013-04-12T19:46:18.948-07:00Organized Crime in News : Russian official: Putin foe targeted for probe M...<a href="http://organizedcrime2013.blogspot.com/2013/04/russian-official-putin-foe-targeted-for.html?spref=bl">Organized Crime in News : <br />
<br />
Russian official: Putin foe targeted for probe<br />
M...</a>: Russian official: Putin foe targeted for probe MOSCOW (AP) — The spokesman for Russia's chief investigative body says that a cri...friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-9519977514053645112013-04-12T19:45:00.003-07:002013-04-12T19:45:41.078-07:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: large;">Russian official: Putin foe targeted for probe</span></h1>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">MOSCOW (AP) — The spokesman for Russia's chief investigative body says that a criminal probe of a Russian opposition leader was triggered by his fierce public stance, which authorities previously denied.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Lawyer and blogger Alexei Navalny exposed official corruption and spearheaded a series of massive protests in Moscow against Putin's return to the presidency in 2011 and 2012. Navalny, 36, goes on trial on Wednesday on charges of leading an organized crime group that stole timber worth 16 million rubles (about $500,000).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">In an interview published Friday in Izvestia daily, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fcrime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Vladimir+Markin%22" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vladimir Markin</a>, spokesman for the <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fcrime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Investigative+Committee%22" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Investigative Committee</a>, said investigators would not have looked into a "banal theft" if that wasn't for Navalny's reports alleging government corruption.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">"If a person tries hard to attract attention, or if I can put it, teases authorities — 'look at me, I'm so good compared to everyone else' — well, then one gets more interested in his past and the process of exposing him naturally gets faster," Markin said.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The Investigative Committee ran a probe into Navalny's alleged embezzlement from a state-owned timber company in the Kirov region from 2011 to May 2012, when the case was closed. It was reopened a few months later after the agency's chief publicly harangued investigators for closing that probe.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The Investigative Committee works only with high-profile cases of major violent and economic crimes. The case like Navalny's would normally be handled by local authorities.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Navalny has denied the charges, calling them politically motivated.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">In a blog post reacting to Markin's interview, Navalny said the investigator was confused about what the actual charge is. Markin mentioned that Navalny "forced" the timber firm to sell its produce at an artificially low price while the lawyer is charged with stealing the timber.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">"This shows that they themselves are confused about how exactly the Investigative Committee is framing the case," Navalny said.</span></div>
<span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" />Read more: <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Russian-official-Putin-foe-targeted-for-probe-4429002.php#ixzz2QJ8Pn9Hh" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Russian-official-Putin-foe-targeted-for-probe-4429002.php#ixzz2QJ8Pn9Hh</a></span></span></span>friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-7348429162367553662013-04-11T10:38:00.002-07:002013-04-11T10:38:40.882-07:00<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Former minister indicted in corruption case</span></h1>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">BELGRADE -- The Office of the Organized Crime Prosecutor raised on Wednesday an indictment against former cabinet minister Oliver Dulić and several of his associates.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The former minister of environment and spatial planning from the ranks of the now opposition Democratic Party (DS) has been indicted for abuse of office related to the issuing work licences to the Slovenian company Nuba Invest.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Organized Crime Prosecutor Miljko Radisavljević told Tanjug the indictment was raised once his office had completed the investigation against Dulić, his former associate in the ministry Nebojsa Janjić and Putevi Srbije (Roads of Serbia) public enterprise Ddirector Zoran Drobnjak, as ordered by the Special Department of the Belgrade District Court. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The prosecutor's office confirmed the suspicion that the accused had committed the crime in the indictment, Radisavljević stated. <br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" />A proposal indictment was raised against Dulić mid-October, but the prosecutor's office acquired new evidence after the investigation was expanded and raised an indictment two weeks later charging Dulić, Janjic and Drobnjak of abuse of office, for which the maximum sentence is 12 years in prison. <br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" />The Belgrade Special Court returned the indictment for additional work in early December and ordered that opinions from economic experts be added to determine the amount of profit gained from the crime. <br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" />The three men are accused of violating proper procedure to allow Nuba Invest to build an optical network along state roads, which are managed by Putevi Srbije. These are the most important roads too, from Belgrade to the borders with Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia. <br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" />Dulić's lawyer said on Wednesday that he and his client had not been informed that about the formal indictment. <br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" />Miloš Paligorić told Beta news agency that the decision "violated the right to defense because the defense lawyers had submitted motions for additional investigation". <br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" />The Democratic Party also reacted, to say in a statement that the indictment was raised "for a crime that does not exist anywhere in Europe". <br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" />The statement further stressed that the European Commission "demanded that Serbia should cancel this criminal act", because prosecuting it "gives too much room to the executive authorities to arrest and persecute those politically unsuitable," - i.e., its political opponents.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">www.b92.net</span></div>
friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-9385492188148671172013-04-07T11:43:00.001-07:002013-04-07T11:43:10.571-07:00<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Chicago Police program protects kids targeted with gang violence</span></h1>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">BY FRANK MAIN Staff Reporter/fmain@suntimes.com <span class="date-time">April 6, 2013 6:28PM</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">It’s like an early warning system for an oncoming storm of violence heading straight for a Chicago Public School student.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">And the forecaster is the Chicago Police Department.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Sometimes, the students have witnessed gang murders.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Other times, a gang-banger has killed a student’s family member, and the student fears he’s next.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">In other instances, kids beings kids, they goof up — one kid mimicked a gang rap video, which was posted on YouTube, and 60,000 views later, the wannabe video star found himself the focus of deadly attention.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">No matter the story, the students share a common trait.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Their lives are in serious danger.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Sounding the alarm to help save those students’ lives is a little-noticed unit of the Chicago Police Department — the Gang School Safety Team.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Over the past three years, at the team’s recommendation, about 60 students have been transferred to other schools for their protection.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Most are sent to another public school in Chicago.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Some head to the suburbs.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Others need to move out of state.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The stakes are high: Last year, 428 Chicago Public Schools students were shot, 40 of whom were killed, police said.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The Gang School Safety Team was formed in 2010 to respond to shootings of CPS students. The team works with Chicago Public Schools to convince families they need to move their children — and fast — out of harm’s way.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">When a student is shot, officers on the team visit a victim’s school within 24 hours of the shooting and speak to the victim’s friends and associates to encourage them not to retaliate. When the officers learn of serious threats against students, they can recommend a transfer.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Students have been relocated to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Colorado, authorities said. One student was sent to Milwaukee because his brother was shot to death and he feared he was next, officials said.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Chicago Public Schools doesn’t pay for moving expenses, but in some cases “might work with other partners and agencies to identify resources to support the family,” a CPS spokeswoman said.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Most of the transferred students are high-schoolers who receive threats because they are involved in gangs.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">But one student, a high school senior, just happened to witness a murder on the South Side in 2011.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">She feared for her life, especially after she saw some postings about her on the Internet.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“The people that did it, they saw me,” she said in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. “I was frightened.”</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The Gang School Safety Team warned her mom, who agreed to transfer her to another South Side high school.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The girl is now studying biology at a college out of state and hopes to become a physical therapist.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">She cooperated with detectives in the murder investigation, and the triggerman was convicted.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“It’s terrible that this happened, but if it wasn’t for this program, she probably would have blown her senior year,” her mother said. “We were actually going to exercise the option of her being home-schooled before I learned about the program.” Both agreed to speak with the Sun-Times on the condition they not be identified.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The 19-year-old student said the reason she wanted to transfer from her school wasn’t because she was afraid of other students. Instead, she didn’t want to come into contact with the gunman, who wasn’t a student but lived in the neighborhood near the school.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“I felt like it was necessary and I appreciated it,” she said of the transfer. “I did feel safe.”</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">2,200 interventions</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The Gang School Safety Team is trained to talk with traumatized kids. The officers conduct interventions with individual students after a shooting. They always have a school official in the room, someone the student trusts.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">If a principal wishes, the officers will also speak to the entire group of friends and associates of the victim — and even their rivals.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Since 2010, the Gang School Safety Team has conducted more than 2,200 interventions, with more than 600 of them in the current school year, police said.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“Our goal with the Gang School Safety Team is not to make an arrest, but to prevent gang-related violence from occurring in and around the school,” said Nicholas Roti, chief of the police department’s Organized Crime Bureau.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“Part of it is telling the kids, ‘We know who you are and what the gang structure is and if there is retaliation, it will be by one of your guys,’ ” Roti said. “We say, ‘Give us time and we will get the guy behind the shooting — and you won’t ruin your own life.’”</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Stopping a 13-year-old’s murder</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The team’s mission has expanded as teenagers have swarmed to the Internet to threaten gang rivals. Social media has become the modern graffiti wall for young gang members.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Officers on the team locate students whose lives have been threatened on social media such as Facebook and YouTube, and try to protect them.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">One example is a 13-year-old elementary school student who made a rap video last month with his friends.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Posing outside a school, they mimicked gang videos posted by older rappers, but didn’t appreciate the deadly consequences, police said.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The young students mocked Joseph “Lil’ JoJo” Coleman, an 18-year-old rapper murdered last year in Englewood.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">In the video, posted on YouTube, the 13-year-old boy waved a small silver gun and threatened to shoot an older teenager in the face.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">He also shouted “GDK,” a threat to kill members of JoJo’s gang — the Gangster Disciples.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Officers on the Gang School Safety Team were tipped that Gangster Disciples were out to kill some of the students in the video, including the 13-year-old rapper.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">There were numerous threats in the comments section of the video, which has been viewed more than 60,000 times to date, police said.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The threats included: “you gone end up like JoJo;” “that n---- dead;” and “ya’ll need more than that lil ass gun to be dissin’ the GD’s.”</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">On March 18 — two days after the video was posted — officers on the Gang School Safety Team identified the 13-year-old boy. They notified Chicago Public Schools and the boy’s grandmother of the threats.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">That day, the boy didn’t go to school, and his grandmother agreed to transfer him to a south suburban school, police said.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The same day, members of the GDs stood outside the boy’s Englewood school looking for him. Police suspect the older gangsters were planning to kill him. Two younger boys in the video were later transferred to different schools, too, police said.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">‘Other cities could learn from what Chicago is doing’</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Sometimes, the team takes action to protect a student who threatens to harm himself.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">In December, the team identified a high school student who posted an online threat to commit suicide, police said.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The student had planned to go to school, create a disturbance that would require officers to respond and force them to shoot him so he could “die by cop,” police said. The Gang School Safety Team notified the boy’s parents and he was hospitalized.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Last week, the team came to the aid of an entire family who was in danger.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The officers worked with the Chicago Housing Authority to move a family to different CHA housing after a student got into a fight that sparked threats against the family.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Two Chicago Public Schools students in the family were moved to a different school, police said.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Although their primary mission is to prevent retaliatory shootings and protect students from violence, Gang School Safety Team officers sometimes get tips about murders and shootings from the students they meet in their interventions.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The officers pass them along to detectives, and some of the tips have been key to solving the shootings, police said.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“We don’t see the ‘no-snitch code’ very much in our interventions because they trust us,” said one member of the team, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The team also is involved in the safety planning surrounding the announced closing of about 50 elementary schools in Chicago in the fall.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The Gang School Safety Team — founded by Cmdr. Leo Schmitz and Sgt. Kenneth Boudreau — started on the South Side as a pilot program, but now operates citywide. It has two sergeants, including Boudreau, and 15 officers.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The officers who work on the South Side have their headquarters in a police station in Englewood. They have a spartan office whose walls are decorated with rows of colorful T-shirts made in honor of slain teenagers such as Lil’ JoJo.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Their work over the past three years is impressive, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a law-enforcement think tank in Washington, D.C.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Wexler was a key player in the discussions that led to the creation of the team.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“There is no other city in the country that does this like Chicago does,” he said. “Other cities could learn from what Chicago is doing.”</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">(Article from Chicago Sun-Time.com)</span></div>
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</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><h1 class="entry-title entry-title" datatype="" property="schema:name dc:title" style="font-size: 2.6em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Gambino Family hitman indicted for murder of police informant</h1>
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Daniel Fama, an alleged <a class="inline_link" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/hitman" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;">hitman</a> associated with the Gambino Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra, was charged on Friday with the 1990 murder of a suspected police informant, Eddie Garofalo. Fama arrested by<a class="inline_link" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/fbi" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;">FBI</a> agents on Thursday and was presented and arraigned in <a href="http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/April13/DanielFamaArrestPR/Fama,%20Daniel%20et%20al.%20Indictment.pdf" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Manhattan federal court</a>Friday afternoon.</div>
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While Fama was arraigned before United States Magistrate Judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox, it is U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter who is officially assigned this major case.</div>
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The <a href="http://mafiatoday.com/tag/gambino-family/" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Gambino Organized Crime Family</a> is a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in numerous acts of violence, including murder. The head of the family is known as the “Boss,” and he is typically assisted by an “Underboss.” At all times relevant to the charges in the Fama indictment, <a class="inline_link" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/john-gotti/articles" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;">John Gotti</a>, Sr., was the Boss and Salvatore Gravano, a/k/a “Sammy the Bull,” was the Underboss of the Gambino Organized Crime Family.</div>
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According to the allegations contained in the<a href="http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/April13/DanielFamaArrestPR/Fama,%20Daniel%20et%20al.%20Indictment.pdf" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"> indictment unsealed Frida</a><strong style="font-weight: bold;">y</strong> in Manhattan federal court, as well as other court documents:</div>
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In 1990, <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,997085,00.html" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">"Sammy 'the Bull' Gravano"</a> ordered Associate Fama and others to murder Eddie Garofalo for, among other things, cooperating with a law enforcement investigation into the Gambino Organized Crime Family. On August 8, 1990, Fama and others shot and killed the Garofalo in front of his Brooklyn, New York, home.</div>
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Fama, 48, of Staten Island, New York, is <a href="http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/April13/DanielFamaArrestPR/Fama,%20Daniel%20et%20al.%20Indictment.pdf" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">charged with killing</a> a person with the intent to prevent that person from communicating to a law enforcement officer information related to the commission of a federal offense. The charge carries a mandatory term of life in prison without the possibility of parole.</div>
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Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “More than two decades since Daniel Fama allegedly killed a suspected government informant, he has finally been arrested. Any attack against someone working with, or suspected of working with, law enforcement will be strongly answered, and no matter how long it takes we will bring alleged criminals to justice.”</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee;">(Article from Examiner.com)</span></div>
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friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-82242394194281271722013-04-07T10:11:00.002-07:002013-04-07T10:11:54.171-07:00Organized Crime in News : SLCPD’s organized crime unit has new focusSALT LA...<a href="http://organizedcrime2013.blogspot.com/2013/04/slcpds-organized-crime-unit-has-new.html?spref=bl">Organized Crime in News : <br />
SLCPD’s organized crime unit has new focusSALT LA...</a>: SLCPD’s organized crime unit has new focus SALT LAKE CITY – The Salt Lake City Police Department’s new organized crime unit was out Thur...friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-40298062319974062222013-04-07T10:11:00.000-07:002013-04-07T10:11:02.466-07:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">SLCPD’s organized crime unit has new focus</span></h1>
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SALT LAKE CITY – The Salt Lake City Police Department’s new organized crime unit was out Thursday night for a prostitution bust.</div>
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The new unit has been operating since January, but Thursday’s bust is the first time television cameras were able to see them in action.</div>
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Five men and one woman were arrested near State Street and 1500 South as undercover female police officers wearing plain clothes acted as decoys. When a deal was made, the new organized crime unit made the arrests.</div>
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The organized crime unit was formed after the department’s vice squad was disbanded in the spring of last year because Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank thought his officers were getting too close to the prostitutes; they were under scrutiny for violating a no contact policy.</div>
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Prostitution arrests plummeted last year after the vice squad was disbanded, but Burbank says the new unit will come with new practices.</div>
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Police have refocused their efforts to catch “Johns” trying to pick up prostitutes. Their goal is to take away some of the demand for prostitution while also going after human traffickers.</div>
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“We never did away with vice enforcement, we just shifted it. It’s going to be more upfront and less of a backroom thing which is what vice turned into,” Burbank said in a January 8 interview with radio station KXRK.</div>
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“What we did is we got rid of the vice unit and now it.s the organized crime unit. We have put in there specific individuals to identify problems like human trafficking, higher level gambling and alcohol issues, not people consuming, but illegal transportation and things. That’s what our focus will be, not the individuals.”</div>
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Their tactics needed to shift, Burbank said, because prostitution isn’t as visible as it used to be because many of the offenses are the result of online arrangements.</div>
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(Article from Fox 13 News)</div>
</span></span>friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-44811041759621262292013-04-03T16:01:00.001-07:002013-04-03T16:01:44.306-07:00Russian Literature in news: A long chapter's lasting journey William A.P. Mart...<a href="http://russianliteratureinnews.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-long-chapters-lasting-journey-william.html?spref=bl">Russian Literature in news: A long chapter's lasting journey<br />
William A.P. Mart...</a>: A long chapter's lasting journey William A.P. Martin, the US missionary who first translated Russian literature into Chinese, whic...friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-58639548589861581812013-04-03T11:03:00.001-07:002013-04-03T11:03:42.155-07:00Organized Crime in News : Michigan’s new organized crime retail law Under...<a href="http://organizedcrime2013.blogspot.com/2013/04/under-michigan-law-when-person-steals.html?spref=bl">Organized Crime in News : <br />
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Michigan’s new organized crime retail law<br />
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Under...</a>: Michigan’s new organized crime retail law Under Michigan law, when a person steals property of the store that is offered for sale ...friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-38880762575726488602013-04-03T10:57:00.000-07:002013-04-03T11:01:15.950-07:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<h1 id="blox-asset-title" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 34px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="blox-headline entry-title" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 38px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Michigan’s new organized crime retail law</span></span></h1>
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<span class="paragraph-0" style="font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></span><br />
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<span class="paragraph-0" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Under Michigan law, when a person steals property of the store that is offered for sale it is considered a criminal offense. Michigan has had various laws prohibiting such activity over the years and depending on the severity of the theft, the crime can be either a misdemeanor or a felony.</span></div>
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</span><span class="paragraph-1" style="font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></span></span>
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<span class="paragraph-1" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In recent times there has been an interesting and alarming development in theft or shoplifting cases both in Michigan and nationally.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Specifically some thieves have become more ‘sophisticated’ and are engaging in what is commonly referred to as ‘organized retail crime.’</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The National Retail Federation defines this new type of activity as referring to groups, gangs and sometimes individuals, who are engaged in illegally obtaining retail merchandise through both theft and fraud in substantial quantities as part of a criminal enterprise. These crime rings generally consist of ‘boosters’ — who methodically steal merchandise from retail stores, and ‘fence operators’ who convert the product to cash or drugs as part of the criminal enterprise. Their most recent survey shows that 96 percent of the retailers consulted say they were the victim of organized retail crime. It is estimated that nationally, retailers are losing upwards of $30 billion per year. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 18px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px;">
<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">A wide range of consumer goods are being stolen. For example, police sources say that Tide detergent is a popular target these days because it is compact, expensive and easy to sell on the streets for profit. Its street name is ‘Liquid Gold.’</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">On March 31, 2013 Michigan became the latest state to have a law to address this problem when the ‘Organized Retail Crime Act’ became effective. This new law makes such activity a five year felony. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The elements of organized retail crime are defined in the statute and further provides for eight different and very inclusive ways that a ‘person’ (defined as including almost every type of entity) can be guilty of the offense.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The law also provides for an organized retail crime advisory board. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">There are a number of recent reports (including videos) on organized retail crime available on the internet.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">(tctimes.com )</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Journal-Times (Grayson, KY)</span></h1>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">April 3, 2013</span></em></span><h2 style="line-height: 19px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Organized crime, drug charges among indictments</span></h2>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /><strong>Journal-Times</strong></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 19px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">April 3, 2013 — A Carter County grand jury handed down five indictments March 22.<br /> Jacob Seagraves, 22, and Heather M. Krause- Brown, 27, both of Grayson, and James Canty, IV, 27, of Detroit, Mich., were indicted on one count of engaging in organized crime, a Class B felony, and one count of first degree trafficking in a controlled substance, heroin, a Class D felony. <br /> The three were arrested Jan. 11 when a search warrant was served on the residence where they were staying.<br /> At that time, the three were charged with trafficking in a controlled substance and engaging in organized crime.<br /> Nearly two months later, on March 2, Grayson police were called back to the same residence by a maintenance worker.<br /> The residence had been empty since the three were arrested in January. While cleaning the mobile home for a new renter, the man found a bag of what he believed to be drugs in the refrigerator.<br /> Grayson police said the substance was heroin which led to the possession charges. The case was bound over to the grand jury March 18. <br /> Also indicted were:<br /> Dustin L. Cox, 30, of Carter County, on one count of manufacturing methamphetamine, a Class B felony. <br /> James Conn, of Olive Hill, on one count of receiving stolen property, a 2008 Jeep of a value greater than $10,000, a Class C felony. <br /> The indictment of a person by a grand jury is an accusation only and that person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Journal-times)</span></div>
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friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-48789489476493186012013-04-03T10:26:00.002-07:002013-04-03T10:26:28.477-07:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9oRz6VEt0yOAUwbf7DwNrFam1u5oZOlN0xWDgzvDefFH-IeK7osaTKi9Rf8ITJjzDzkluZPDe42mCMjChyGHrwy2w72aZ7hnGt2FlA5GLQ0Vyzdo2AE0HSrahib6VGnT8DyWuEVyc6gz8/s1600/Al+Capone+biography+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9oRz6VEt0yOAUwbf7DwNrFam1u5oZOlN0xWDgzvDefFH-IeK7osaTKi9Rf8ITJjzDzkluZPDe42mCMjChyGHrwy2w72aZ7hnGt2FlA5GLQ0Vyzdo2AE0HSrahib6VGnT8DyWuEVyc6gz8/s400/Al+Capone+biography+Cover.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: large;">Available now at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/AL-CAPONE-Biography-Self-Made-photographs/dp/1482788225/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363556697&sr=1-4&keywords=al+capone+the+biography+of+a+self-made+man">Amazon.com </a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/CAPONE-Biography-Self-Made-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B00BVAWL4Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1363556664&sr=1-1&keywords=al+capone+the+biography+of+a+self-made+man">Kindle </a> and <a href="https://www.createspace.com/4210973">CreateSpace eStore</a></span></div>
<br />friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-66558389231073773032013-03-27T11:35:00.003-07:002013-03-27T11:35:43.214-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiukobzR4MW3PsdcfIkdhJAotR8y_GDFGX-EYwECaWJXMdMp8Sjp1ciuEk1Rz3NyVJ_XSgw2emB8_7S_srLkpuxSCLfiHSUhZA6_HzUyl-2Bg09-p3KtFa18z_MFIKjXRcwkG6jqFeG47p/s1600/courts+and+criminals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiukobzR4MW3PsdcfIkdhJAotR8y_GDFGX-EYwECaWJXMdMp8Sjp1ciuEk1Rz3NyVJ_XSgw2emB8_7S_srLkpuxSCLfiHSUhZA6_HzUyl-2Bg09-p3KtFa18z_MFIKjXRcwkG6jqFeG47p/s400/courts+and+criminals.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: large;">Available now at<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Courts-Criminals-Arthur-Train/dp/1483963705/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1364409025&sr=8-2&keywords=courts+and+criminals+arthur+train"> Amazon.com</a> and <a href="https://www.createspace.com/4222010">CreateSpace</a> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">The Pleasant Fiction of the Presumption of Innocence<br />Preparing a Criminal Case for Trial<br />Sensationalism and Jury Trials<br />Why Do Men Kill?<br />Detectives and Others <br />Detectives Who Detect<br />Women in the Courts<br />Tricks of the Trade<br />What Fosters Crime<br />Insanity and the Law<br />The Mala Vita in America</span></div>
<br />friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-34413565766294062972013-03-23T12:33:00.004-07:002013-03-23T12:33:53.359-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi21hbbleBjxxtPBdKE5poxaxmJkCxRs9Pu6vZXOkRstQ8xrWq_bClVNrg1X7EcAID6pvpRLCa6LoKQ05QEZx7P-JQfM2f5LO1yIMEKWCa39tamVJ-QO5sHLlvrnFE8G5yrGFjMgYbi4vqL/s1600/The+kefauver+org+crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi21hbbleBjxxtPBdKE5poxaxmJkCxRs9Pu6vZXOkRstQ8xrWq_bClVNrg1X7EcAID6pvpRLCa6LoKQ05QEZx7P-JQfM2f5LO1yIMEKWCa39tamVJ-QO5sHLlvrnFE8G5yrGFjMgYbi4vqL/s400/The+kefauver+org+crime.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: large;">Available NOW at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kefauver-Committee-Report-Organized-Crime/dp/1482798905/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1364063642&sr=8-2&keywords=Kefauver+Committee">Amazon.com</a></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: large;">and <a href="https://www.createspace.com/4211177">CreateSpace </a></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce was a special committee of the United States Senate which existed from 1950 to 1951 and which investigated organized crime which crossed state borders in the United States. The committee became popularly known as the Kefauver Committee because of its chairman, Senator Estes Kefauver.</span></div>
<br />friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-91353585667251148822013-03-19T10:39:00.002-07:002013-03-19T10:39:36.029-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy6NuBbt6QDfMXfwkFIMqOLvuyZrOViRqxZd4w4bnwkHyoKpWIPNjVxYXD49Cilkc7YCQt3uoLNcImWU6jNbpAyxxvLoGYG5Uzjs7_Pye_grhYxQywSW87XL3A3KweY9V62yLEHAOzfxXg/s1600/The+Threat+of+Russian+org+crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy6NuBbt6QDfMXfwkFIMqOLvuyZrOViRqxZd4w4bnwkHyoKpWIPNjVxYXD49Cilkc7YCQt3uoLNcImWU6jNbpAyxxvLoGYG5Uzjs7_Pye_grhYxQywSW87XL3A3KweY9V62yLEHAOzfxXg/s400/The+Threat+of+Russian+org+crime.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: large;">Available at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Threat-Russian-Organized-Crime/dp/1482792958/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1363714530&sr=8-4&keywords=the+threat+of+russian+organized+crime">Amazon.com</a> and <a href="https://www.createspace.com/4210897">CreateSpace</a></span></div>
<br />friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-12387365362615695232013-03-19T09:56:00.001-07:002013-03-19T09:56:13.626-07:00<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 24pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">A
History of Organized Crime in America. <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Organized crime in America comes in
many forms, but it was the Mafia that emerged with the highest profile and
helped spur numerous acts of Congress to help law enforcers deal with the
threat. At the same time, however, much of the early history of organized
crime is largely inseparable from political corruption. In the first half of
the twentieth century, the law had often been obliged to turn a blind eye to
illegal activity because of personal investment, threat of retaliation, or
political pressure. Though organized crime long predates Prohibition, it was
the illicit manufacture and distribution of alcohol during temperance that
made countless criminals very wealthy and set the stage for many years of
criminal influence and affluence all over America. Gradually, public and
government awareness of the breadth of the threat evolved into political
action. A turning point came in 1951 with high-profile televised hearings on
organized crime in New York City that helped create the now stereotypical
image of the Mafia by introducing major Italian gang personalities into the
average American household. Then, In the 1960s, a vigorous campaign by
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy prompted new acts of Congress that would
become essential tools in combating organized crime—tools that would be the
foundation of the federal government’s new focus on international organized
crime and terrorism in the twenty-first century.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Understanding
Organized Crime and the Origins of the American Mafia</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Organized crime is generally defined
as “a continuing, profit-motivated, criminal enterprise that employs the use
of fear, violence, intimidation, and public corruption to achieve
organizational goals and remain immune from law enforcement” (Lyman and
Potter 2004). Meanwhile, exactly what the Mafia is both in the United States
and on an international level remains uncertain, due to its status as a
secret society with roots in Italy. Though older sources have been suggested,
an individual of the “mafia,” the Sicilian <i>mafioso,</i> suggests a “brave
man” acting with hostility in response to the foreign governing body in
nineteenth century Italy (Repetto 2004). Generally, the term “mafia” referred
to the system of organization on the island of Sicily, which involved
individually managed estates and families grouped geographically, but without
an overarching hierarchy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The tight-knit hierarchical structure
of the American Mafia popularized by books and films such as <i>The Godfather</i>,
<i>Goodfellas</i> and, more recently, the TV series <i>The Sopranos</i> may
have ties closer to other organizations, such as the <i>camorras</i>
(fighters and thieves who wore cloaks from which the word may derive) near
Naples, Italy. The American Mafia, thus, is not simply a transplanted
Sicilian Mafia operating on a new land ripe for corruption and violence. The
abstractness and complexity of the Mafia have been chief causes of legal
issues when attempting to prosecute gangsters under unspecific and undefined
law (Lyman and Potter 2004).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">In the early twentieth century, waves
of Italian immigrants filled a void at the bottom rung of the economic ladder
and organized themselves into “families” in the big cities, usually according
to their specific region of birth. Individual gangs maintained fierce loyalty
and a code of silence called “<i>omerta.”</i> The challenge of <i>omerta</i>
left early law enforcers to simply let gangs fight it out among themselves.
However, when a series of violent incidents occurred in New York City in
1903, the police department was provoked into establishing a squad led by Joe
Petrosino to deal with Italian crime, ranging from counterfeiting to murder.
Petrosino even traveled to Italy to seek fugitives wanted in America, only to
be murdered by paid assassins tipped to his reputation (Repetto 2004). In
America, many Italians (among others) gravitated toward labor unions later
championed by national figures such as Jimmy Hoffa, while some took advantage
of the extremely profitable enterprise of bootlegging at the onset of
Prohibition. The unpopular law, however, made for sporadic enforcement and,
in some cases, direct collaboration with criminals.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">The Early Battles</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">James O. Finckenauer uses enterprise
theory of supply and demand to recognize the ease with which criminal
organizations prospered during Prohibition. Americans casually broke the law,
especially in large cities such as Chicago and New York where underground
saloons were operated by gangsters who often had an overt understanding with
the police (2007). Meanwhile, prominent citizens openly patronized these “speakeasies”
and paid a premium for illegal alcohol of varying quality. When police raids
were conducted, they were usually with advance notice and sometimes just part
of the fun of a night out on the town. In these areas, societal sentiment
simply did not align with the law, so extensive action was not taken to
prevent the illegal enterprises from continuing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">However, in instances where the line
was clearly and grossly crossed, public outcry demanded the law to intervene.
Such was the case in a Chicago primary election in 1927 when violence erupted
in the attempt to sway the vote. Election workers were assaulted and
kidnapped while bombs exploded at their candidate’s house and political
leaders were murdered. The election carnage made the papers all over the nation.
Not only did the state of Illinois respond with special appointments to
investigate, but President Hoover dispatched marines to Chicago to help
protect the city during the November election. Also, when organized crime
attacked or insulted the police, the police would inevitably retaliate out of
resentment. Most notably was Al Capone’s three-year reign of terror in
Chicago that culminated with his infamous criminal indictment on charges of
tax evasion, the only crime that could be directly linked to him. Colonel
Henry Barrett Chamberlain had not been long acting as director of the newly
established Chicago Crime Commission when he coined the phrase “public enemy”
in reference to Al Capone. In addition to brutally influencing the previously
mentioned election primary, there were well-publicized murders following the
legendary St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and other high-profile violence that
forced Capone and other mob bosses to lay low. Meanwhile, their old political
allies distanced themselves and driven prosecutors pushed vigorously for
indictments and legal reform (Repetto 2004).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Like Capone in Chicago (in mobs in
major cities throughout the nation), the New York mob was equally integrated
into the political arena and exercised a great deal of control in society.
Major figures such as the notorious killer Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel allied
with the financial guidance of Meyer Lanksy not only to run extortion rackets
in New York, but also spread their influence across the United States.
Siegel’s major brainchild was to open a casino/hotel resort in the middle of
the desert, and idea that would eventually become the Flamingo in Las Vegas.
Other major player in the organized crime scene was the politically
influential Frank Costello who ran protected gambling rackets through New
York fruit stands as well as becoming a major liquor distributor during
Prohibition. Costello went to build his own casino in Las Vegas en route to
becoming one of the most powerful mob bosses in the nation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The bosses had extensive networks
that made it difficult for the police to connect individuals to specific
crimes, places, and dates, making law enforcement a difficult task, but one
that was helped with later legislation. The wealth accumulated from these
various criminal ventures was the foundation of the network of organized
crime that emerged over the course of the next two decades. In the 1930s,
bosses such as financial genius Arnold Rothstein and the politically
connected Johnny Torrio, whom Thomas Repetto (2004) dubs the “the architect
of modern organized crime,” were the models for new generations of gangsters
that they helped tutor. Out of this era began the national syndicate that
would not come fully into public and governmental awareness until late in the
1950s.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Mid-Century Awareness
and the New Legislation</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Senator Estes Kefauver’s Special
Committee to Investigate Organized Crime did not outrightly expose the
complete, brutal reality of the Mafia to the American public. Nor did the
Apalachin incident ignite immediate action on the part of the federal
government. However, something changed when dozens of Mafia bosses met one
1957 November day at Joseph Barbara’s estate to select Vito Genovese as the
ultimate “Mr. Big,” the boss of bosses (Lyman and Potter 2004). The response by
law enforcement of the past had been to try to take down the bosses. But what
became evident with the realization of the existence of such a “syndicate”
was that even if Mr. Big were removed, his family would remain intact; it
would simply transfer hands, usually resulting in the family being renamed.
New legislation would have to be of an entirely different mold in order to be
of any use to law enforcement, and such a campaign wouldn’t come into play
until after the death of FBI Director Edgar J. Hoover. Hoover had been
reluctant to pursue the problem of organized crime in large part because of
the overwhelming challenge it posed and the threat to the image of his
bureau. Congress, though, stepped in to address issues of labor racketeering
and extortion, and from the 1930s to the 1970s, it passed a number of laws to
help protect unions from further exploitation by the Mafia (Jacobs 2006).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">In Robert F. Kennedy, American found
an outspoken activist in the battle against organized crime. As U.S. Attorney
General, Kennedy vastly broadened the Department of Justice’s focus on
organized crime and required the FBI to enforce certain changes, including
expanding the Top Hoodlums Program and renaming it Criminal Intelligence.
Kennedy further brought together sections of 27 governmental agencies dealing
in organized crime and formed a committee which he oversaw. As a vocal critic
of the Mafia in particular, one of Kennedy's pet projects was to bring down
Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa built empires in securing numerous rights for his unions,
but unfortunately dealt far too frequently with the Mob. An enduring popular
legacy of the era is that the Kennedy’s pursuit of the mob and attempts to
overthrow Communist rule in Cuba were major factors in the assassination of
both John and Robert. But in spite of innumerable conspiracy theories, the
enduring official verdict is that each man’s assassin acted alone.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Out of the tumultuous political
climate of the 1960s there emerged key legislation and expanded powers for
law enforcement, from increased electronic surveillance to the use of
informants, undercover operations, grants of immunity, and witness
protection. Most importantly, the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act (RICO) was passed as part of the Organized Crime Control Act
in 1970. The act was designed to help prosecute patterns of illegal
infiltration of businesses based on “predicate acts,” specifically at least
two instances within ten years. It was designed to link people and crime over
time and included hefty penalties designed to deter further engagement in
organized crime (Finckenauer 2007).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">In 1968, the Omnibus Crime Control
and Safe Streets Act attempted to define organized crime in the law by
outlining the disciplined, organized, and continuous engagement in illegal
enterprises “including but not limited to gambling, prostitution, loan
sharking, narcotics, [and] labor racketeering.” It is the only legal
definition on the books, and can only begin to suggest the scope of organized
crime. The complexity of the legal battle is a result of the variety and
diversity that exists among people engaged in organized crime, and their
shifting relationship with the American city and its political leaders
(Finckenauer 2007).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">The Recent Decades:
From Organized Crime to Modern Terrorism</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">While efforts to curb organized crime
have aided police enforcement domestically, the global reach of some
organizations has made controlling illegal activities especially challenging.
International criminal activity is not a recent phenomenon, as evidenced by
long-standing global financial ventures where organizations launder across
borders and among international banks to finance their illegal activities
through legitimate-looking businesses (Lyman and Potter 2004). However, the
globalization of economies in the last quarter of the twentieth century
combined with improvements in transportation and communication to encourage
the movement of goods and services across boundaries at a much greater scale.
Among the most recognized forms of transnational crime is human smuggling and
trafficking. In many cases, legal migrants are voluntarily carrying illegal
goods across boarders because organized criminal activity close to home
provides unparalleled economic opportunity for the lower classes. Indeed, James
O. Finchenauer suggests that “[a]s long as the economic, social and political
conditions that fertilize organized criminality exist, so will organized
crime. Absence of economic opportunity and poverty in too many countries
leads their people to look to criminal organizations as a way out” (2007).
Examples include farmers turning to illegal but more lucrative crops from
poppies in Afghanistan to coca and marijuana in countries south of the United
States border (Finckenauer 2007).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">The War on Drugs in the 1980s spurred
major legal initiatives to aid law enforcers in the pursuit of organized
criminals. In 1984, the Crime Control Act expanded asset forfeiture laws
while the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act created stricter sentences for money
laundering as well as defining “mandatory prison sentences for large-scale
distribution of marijuana” (Lyman and Potter 2004). New designer drugs were
also added to the controlled substances list under the 1986 Act. The most
important legislation from that year, however, came with the Money-Laundering
Control Act that specifically targeted financial transactions made to conduct
illegal activities or the concealment of such funds. Indeed, the code of the
Internal Revenue Service has been useful in law enforcement from Al Capone to
the present day. From evasion of income tax to hiding assets, the IRS has
many tools for combating corrupt finances. In 1988 the Chemical and Diversion
and Trafficking Act was passed to deal with the raw materials of drug
manufacture.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Finally, the controversial Uniting
and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to
Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, or the USA Patriot Act, which
followed the attacks of 9/11, provided expanded investigatorial authority for
police agencies at all levels, and not just in relation to terrorism. In
fact, some believe the expanded powers of the Patriot Act have allowed the
violation of a number of American civil liberties, especially those related
to government surveillance through wiretapping. (Lyman and Potter 2004).
Nevertheless, the act has been reauthorized twice by Congress, once in 2005
and again in 2006, though with a number of provisions and additional
oversight.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-71154931559788305222013-03-17T15:06:00.003-07:002013-04-03T10:21:30.467-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />friends.awesome@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060449232877031509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704858146368414232.post-67886154319804108042013-03-17T14:54:00.002-07:002013-03-17T15:30:26.658-07:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></span><br /></span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b>Organised crime</b> or <b>criminal organisations</b> are</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnationality" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Transnationality">transnational</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">, national, or local groupings of highly centralised enterprises run by</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Crime">criminals</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"> for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Money">monetary</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_(economics)" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Profit (economics)">profit</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">. Some criminal organisations, such as</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Terrorism">terrorist organisations</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">, are politically motivated. Sometimes criminal organisations force people to do business with them, as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for so-called "protection".</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1" style="color: white; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organized_crime#cite_note-1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[1]</a></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Gang">Gangs</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"> may become disciplined enough to be considered </span><i style="color: white;">organised</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">. An organised gang or criminal set can also be referred to as a </span><b style="color: white;">mob</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-test_2-0" style="color: white; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organized_crime#cite_note-test-2" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[2]</a></sup></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="United States">United States</a>, the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organized_Crime_Control_Act" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Organized Crime Control Act">Organized Crime Control Act</a></i> (1970) defines organised crime as "The unlawful activities of [...] a highly organised, disciplined association [...]".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organized_crime#cite_note-3" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[3]</a></sup> Criminal activity as a structured group is referred to as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racket_(crime)" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Racket (crime)">racketeering</a> and such crime is commonly referred to as the work of the <i>Mob</i>. In the UK, police estimate organised crime involves up to 38,000 people operating in 6,000 various groups.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organized_crime#cite_note-4" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[4]</a></sup> In addition, due to the escalating violence of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Mexican Drug War">Mexico's drug war</a>, the Mexican <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_cartel" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Drug cartel">drug cartels</a> are considered the "greatest organised crime threat to the United States" according to a report issued by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="United States Department of Justice">United States Department of Justice</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organized_crime#cite_note-5" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[5]</a></sup></span></div>
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