In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Spirit Of 9-11 Stops Mass Murder In New York
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Spirit Of 9-11 Stops Mass Murder In New York
by
Richard Poe
New Yorkers are spoiling for a fight.
When Buddhist actor Richard Gere urged a concert crowd in Madison Square Garden last October to meet terrorism with "love, compassion and understanding," the audience booed and jeered. This month, Rabbi Yakove Lloyd announced that -- in response to terrorist threats -- Jews would begin patrolling Brooklyn neighborhoods with shotguns.
Call it the "Spirit of 9-11." A silent mobilization is sweeping the city. New Yorkers, young and old, are coming to grips with the fact that it is better to die fighting than to simply die.
Unfortunately, city officials don't agree. The gap between official and grassroots New York revealed itself with stunning clarity last weekend, when two unarmed women showed more courage than the whole city government put together.
It began in the wee hours of Sunday morning, around 2 am, when -- according to cops and witnesses -- a 34-year-old black man named Steven Johnson appeared in Manhattan's artsy East Village, carrying three loaded pistols, a samurai sword, a police baton, a hundred plastic handcuffs, a spray bottle of kerosene and a barbecue lighter.
Johnson had a 17-year history of arrests on larceny, drug and weapons charges. He also had a deadly hatred of white people.
"I've got a problem with you," he told 28-year-old pedestrian Jonah Brander, just before shooting him in the gut.
"Call 9-11!" shouted Brander, as he stumbled, bleeding, into Bar Veloce, a crowded hangout at Second Avenue and 11th Street. Johnson followed Brander into the bar, shooting him again.
"It's time for all of you crackers to pay," said Johnson. "You know what this is about."
Johnson forced one woman at gunpoint to cuff the other hostages, then sprayed his prisoners with kerosene, all the while "ranting about white people" and vowing "revenge for thousands of years of suffering," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
"White people are going to burn tonight," cried the gunman.
"I thought we were going to be raped," said 23-year-old Ann-Margaret Gidley, an off-duty waitress from another bar. She soon realized, however, that Johnson had something worse in mind.
"After I saw the barbecue lighter, that's when I knew I had to do something..." Gidley recalled. "I could tell... there was no way out alive... And I just decided that my mom was not going to read about me in the paper, and not in this way."
Gidley's hands were free. She had only pretended to be bound. Siezing the moment, she tackled Johnson from behind.
"He didn't fall, initially. I had to hit him a couple of times, and then I got him to the ground.... And I felt a couple other hands, which was the best feeling in the world...."
Those "other hands" belonged to Annie Hubbard -- another off-duty waitress and aspiring actress. Hubbard too had only pretended to be bound, while keeping her hands free. During the struggle, Hubbard was shot in the leg.
Only then did a SWAT team move in, taking advantage of the ruckus. A police bullet grazed Johnson's head. Moments later, he was arrested.
It could have been worse. Johnson shot three people, but killed none. All sixteen hostages escaped alive.
In another town, Johnson's rampage might have been a wake-up call. But this is New York -- the city that never learns.
"Those two women did the right thing," said Commissioner Kelly. "... they were very brave."
Yes, they were brave. You have to be, in a city where armed killers roam the streets, while gun laws keep honest citizens defenseless.
Ordinary street cops must also be brave, in a town where shooting a black man leads to press attacks, law suits, internal investigations, Al Sharpton protests and denunciations by Hillary Clinton. Maybe that's why police waited 40 minutes before making their move on Johnson.
When Rabbi Yakove Lloyd announced June 9 that armed Jews would patrol Brooklyn streets, Chief Kelly vowed to arrest anyone who tried. After all, someone might get hurt!
But unarmed women making suicide charges against homicidal maniacs bristling with weaponry -- this Commissioner Kelly heartily recommends. This he calls "the right thing."
Gentle reader, don't get me wrong. I love New York, and I love the NYPD. But there is a madness in this town that rivals the madness of Steven Johnson.
Our women face death unarmed and unprotected, forced to fight criminals with their bare hands. That they're tough enough to take it is a credit to our women -- but a shame to every New Yorker, cop or civilian, who presumes to call himself a man.
Richard Poe is a New York Times best-selling author and cyberjournalist. For more information on Poe and his writings, visit his Web site, RichardPoe.com.
http://www.gunowners.org/op0234.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
by
Richard Poe
New Yorkers are spoiling for a fight.
When Buddhist actor Richard Gere urged a concert crowd in Madison Square Garden last October to meet terrorism with "love, compassion and understanding," the audience booed and jeered. This month, Rabbi Yakove Lloyd announced that -- in response to terrorist threats -- Jews would begin patrolling Brooklyn neighborhoods with shotguns.
Call it the "Spirit of 9-11." A silent mobilization is sweeping the city. New Yorkers, young and old, are coming to grips with the fact that it is better to die fighting than to simply die.
Unfortunately, city officials don't agree. The gap between official and grassroots New York revealed itself with stunning clarity last weekend, when two unarmed women showed more courage than the whole city government put together.
It began in the wee hours of Sunday morning, around 2 am, when -- according to cops and witnesses -- a 34-year-old black man named Steven Johnson appeared in Manhattan's artsy East Village, carrying three loaded pistols, a samurai sword, a police baton, a hundred plastic handcuffs, a spray bottle of kerosene and a barbecue lighter.
Johnson had a 17-year history of arrests on larceny, drug and weapons charges. He also had a deadly hatred of white people.
"I've got a problem with you," he told 28-year-old pedestrian Jonah Brander, just before shooting him in the gut.
"Call 9-11!" shouted Brander, as he stumbled, bleeding, into Bar Veloce, a crowded hangout at Second Avenue and 11th Street. Johnson followed Brander into the bar, shooting him again.
"It's time for all of you crackers to pay," said Johnson. "You know what this is about."
Johnson forced one woman at gunpoint to cuff the other hostages, then sprayed his prisoners with kerosene, all the while "ranting about white people" and vowing "revenge for thousands of years of suffering," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
"White people are going to burn tonight," cried the gunman.
"I thought we were going to be raped," said 23-year-old Ann-Margaret Gidley, an off-duty waitress from another bar. She soon realized, however, that Johnson had something worse in mind.
"After I saw the barbecue lighter, that's when I knew I had to do something..." Gidley recalled. "I could tell... there was no way out alive... And I just decided that my mom was not going to read about me in the paper, and not in this way."
Gidley's hands were free. She had only pretended to be bound. Siezing the moment, she tackled Johnson from behind.
"He didn't fall, initially. I had to hit him a couple of times, and then I got him to the ground.... And I felt a couple other hands, which was the best feeling in the world...."
Those "other hands" belonged to Annie Hubbard -- another off-duty waitress and aspiring actress. Hubbard too had only pretended to be bound, while keeping her hands free. During the struggle, Hubbard was shot in the leg.
Only then did a SWAT team move in, taking advantage of the ruckus. A police bullet grazed Johnson's head. Moments later, he was arrested.
It could have been worse. Johnson shot three people, but killed none. All sixteen hostages escaped alive.
In another town, Johnson's rampage might have been a wake-up call. But this is New York -- the city that never learns.
"Those two women did the right thing," said Commissioner Kelly. "... they were very brave."
Yes, they were brave. You have to be, in a city where armed killers roam the streets, while gun laws keep honest citizens defenseless.
Ordinary street cops must also be brave, in a town where shooting a black man leads to press attacks, law suits, internal investigations, Al Sharpton protests and denunciations by Hillary Clinton. Maybe that's why police waited 40 minutes before making their move on Johnson.
When Rabbi Yakove Lloyd announced June 9 that armed Jews would patrol Brooklyn streets, Chief Kelly vowed to arrest anyone who tried. After all, someone might get hurt!
But unarmed women making suicide charges against homicidal maniacs bristling with weaponry -- this Commissioner Kelly heartily recommends. This he calls "the right thing."
Gentle reader, don't get me wrong. I love New York, and I love the NYPD. But there is a madness in this town that rivals the madness of Steven Johnson.
Our women face death unarmed and unprotected, forced to fight criminals with their bare hands. That they're tough enough to take it is a credit to our women -- but a shame to every New Yorker, cop or civilian, who presumes to call himself a man.
Richard Poe is a New York Times best-selling author and cyberjournalist. For more information on Poe and his writings, visit his Web site, RichardPoe.com.
http://www.gunowners.org/op0234.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
Richard Poe
June 21, 2002
New Yorkers are spoiling for a fight.
When Buddhist actor Richard Gere urged a concert crowd in Madison Square Garden last October to meet terrorism with "love, compassion and understanding," the audience booed and jeered. This month, Rabbi Yakove Lloyd announced that - in response to terrorist threats - Jews would begin patrolling Brooklyn neighborhoods with shotguns.
Call it the "Spirit of 9-11." A silent mobilization is sweeping the city. New Yorkers, young and old, are coming to grips with the fact that it is better to die fighting than to simply die.
Unfortunately, city officials don't agree. The gap between official and grassroots New York revealed itself with stunning clarity last weekend, when two unarmed women showed more courage than the whole city government put together.
It began in the wee hours of Sunday morning, around 2 a.m., when - according to cops and witnesses - a 34-year-old black man named Steven Johnson appeared in Manhattan's artsy East Village, carrying three loaded pistols, a samurai sword, a police baton, a hundred plastic handcuffs, a spray bottle of kerosene and a barbecue lighter.
Johnson had a 17-year history of arrests on larceny, drug and weapons charges. He also had a deadly hatred of white people.
"I've got a problem with you," he told 28-year-old pedestrian Jonah Brander, just before shooting him in the gut.
"Call 9-11!" shouted Brander, as he stumbled, bleeding, into Bar Veloce, a crowded hangout at Second Avenue and 11th Street. Johnson followed Brander into the bar and shot him again.
"It's time for all of you crackers to pay," said Johnson. "You know what this is about."
Johnson forced one woman at gunpoint to cuff the other hostages, then sprayed his prisoners with kerosene, all the while "ranting about white people" and vowing "revenge for thousands of years of suffering," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
"White people are going to burn tonight," cried the gunman.
"I thought we were going to be raped," said 23-year-old Ann-Margaret Gidley, an off-duty waitress from another bar. She soon realized, however, that Johnson had something even worse in mind.
"After I saw the barbecue lighter, that's when I knew I had to do something ..." Gidley recalled. "I could tell . there was no way out alive ... And I just decided that my mom was not going to read about me in the paper, and not in this way."
Gidley's hands were free. She had only pretended to be bound. Seizing the moment, she tackled Johnson from behind.
"He didn't fall, initially. I had to hit him a couple of times, and then I got him to the ground ... And I felt a couple other hands, which was the best feeling in the world ..."
Those "other hands" belonged to Annie Hubbard - another off-duty waitress and aspiring actress. Hubbard too had only pretended to be bound, while keeping her hands free. During the struggle, Hubbard was shot in the leg.
Only then did a SWAT team move in, taking advantage of the ruckus. A police bullet grazed Johnson's head. Moments later, he was arrested.
It could have been worse. Johnson shot three people, but killed none. All 16 hostages escaped alive.
In another town, Johnson's rampage might have been a wake-up call. But this is New York - the city that never learns.
"Those two women did the right thing," said Commissioner Kelly, ". they were very brave."
Yes, they were brave. You have to be, in a city where armed killers roam the streets, while gun laws keep honest citizens defenseless.
Ordinary street cops must also be brave, in a town where shooting a black man leads to press attacks, lawsuits, internal investigations, Al Sharpton protests and denunciations by Hillary Clinton. Maybe that's why police waited 40 minutes before making their move on Johnson.
When Rabbi Yakove Lloyd announced June 9 that armed Jews would patrol Brooklyn streets, Chief Kelly vowed to arrest anyone who tried. After all, someone might get hurt!
But unarmed women making suicide charges against homicidal maniacs bristling with weaponry - this Commissioner Kelly heartily recommends. This he calls "the right thing."
Gentle reader, don't get me wrong. I love New York, and I love the NYPD. But there is a madness in this town that rivals the madness of Steven Johnson.
Our women face death unarmed and unprotected, forced to fight criminals with their bare hands. That they're tough enough to take it is a credit to our women - but a shame to every New Yorker, cop or civilian, who presumes to call himself a man.
See NewsMax's special offer for Richard Poe's latest book, "The Seven Myths of Gun Control."
See more columns by Richard Poe.
Richard Poe is a New York Times best-
http://www.newsmax.com/commentmax/articles/Richard_Poe.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Number nearly doubles in first 4 months of 2002
By Jane Prendergast, jprendergast@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A robber threatened to blow away a college kid in University Heights. A gun was shoved in a grandfather's face while he sat in his car in Clifton. A waitress and her boyfriend had a gun pointed at them in Corryville.
More than 100 times from January through April this year, armed robbers poked guns at people on streets or in parking lots in the city, demanding they empty their pockets.
University of Cincinnati student John Warner was held up at gunpoint in University Heights last month.
Robberies at gunpoint in Cincinnati during the first four months of this year were nearly double what they were during the same time in 2001 and 2000.
"I've been walking around these streets for four years and never have I felt insecure or that I was in jeopardy," says John Warner, a 22-year-old University of Cincinnati student. But now, "There are some crazy people out there, seriously."
Mr. Warner was lucky. He had no money, and the robber gave up his bluff. Police caught the man, who had pointed a gun two inches from Mr. Warner's chest before walking away.
All kinds of violence is increasing in Cincinnati and across the country. But armed robberies - when they're random - are among the most personal attacks. They're among the crimes that most worried the residents of East Walnut Hills, prompting them to hold a neighborhood safety meeting in May that drew Mayor Charlie Luken, four City Council members and an assistant police chief.
They were worried about a neighbor who'd been held up while walking his dog.
"That's frightening," says Mary Farris, who helped organize the meeting. "If that's happening here, it's something that can happen to anybody."
Robberies at gunpoint happen at all hours, not just at night. Occasionally, the victims are shot, but not often.
Arrests are few: The crimes are difficult to solve, police say, because victims often don't get a good look at assailants. Sometimes it's dark, or the robbers wear ski masks or approach their victims from behind.
The robberies are still most common in the city's tougher areas, like Over-the-Rhine and Avondale, where police say they're almost always motivated directly by drugs - a dealer ripping off a buyer, for example.
In Over-the-Rhine alone, it happened 37 times in the first four months of this year, more than double the 16 in the same time last year.
But now, victims also are reporting armed robberies in a wider variety of safer neighborhoods, places like downtown, Roselawn, East Walnut Hills and around UC.
Many of these likely are related to drugs, too, police say, but in a different way - robbers feeding their habits by preying on innocent people.
"Don't be stupid"
Aft
It happened two weeks ago to former United Way President Richard Aft as he sat in his car on a Monday morning in Clifton, just feet away from the busy Ludlow Avenue business district.
Mr. Aft, 64, had just come out of his neighborhood post office branch on Ormond Avenue, where he bought stamps to send postcards to his grandchildren. He took out his wallet, where he keeps their addresses.
"Without any notice, I had a big, black gun two inches from my body, six inches from my face," Mr. Aft says.
The man told him not to be stupid, to give him the wallet. Mr. Aft did, losing it, the $60 inside and his credit cards. The robber kept his head outside the car, above the window, so Mr. Aft never got a look at him.
Officers responded immediately, but couldn't do much. Mr. Aft couldn't describe the man.
"So there's no evidence, there's no description," says Sgt. Brian Ibold, supervisor of one of Cincinnati police's five violent crimes squads. "These are very hard to solve."
Some victims know their assailants.
"A drug deal that's gone bad, it can be that the supplier is owed money from the street-level dealer and he's trying to collect," explains Cincinnati Police Sgt. Tim Fritz. "Or it can be a retaliation where the buyer is fleeced and is trying to get back at somebody.
"I guess the best way to put it," he says, "is this: Today's victim is tomorrow's suspect."
Three weeks ago on McMillan Street in Walnut Hills, a man told officers he had been shot during a robbery. But investigators figured out that he'd stopped there to pick up a prostitute for $10. When he asked for change for his $20, she came back with a man who thought the "john" might have more money to steal.
In most cases, these are serial robbers. So one arrest generally solves more than one incident.
Adrian Sutherlin, a 21-year-old Walnut Hills man, faces trial in August on aggravated robbery and robbery counts. Cincinnati police say he robbed two women, a pizza delivery driver and an elderly man. He got out of jail June 18 after posting a $20,000 bond.
The man accused of robbing Mr. Warner on June 4, Darius Hill, also was caught - about a minute after he held up the UC student. Mr. Hill, an 18-year-old from South Fairmount, is charged with taking a woman's wallet and another man's wallet, watch and necklace.
Officers had been looking for him already because of two other hold-ups within minutes that night in the same neighborhood, one on the same street, Stratford Avenue.
Police did not find the man accused of robbing the waitress' boyfriend and groping her last month on Glendora Avenue in Corryville.
Victims reflect
The robbery didn't leave Mr. Warner traumatized, probably, he says, because he saw a police officer within seconds of the holdup and Mr. Hill was caught a few minutes later.
He does, however, walk female friends to their houses and cars now, and is more aware of his surroundings as he walks around campus.
Mr. Warner's mother tried to talk him into moving to another neighborhood. He assured her that he's living in one of the safest areas around the university.
"When I was staring at the gun, and when he said he should shoot me, I was like, "What? I can't believe this is happening,'" Mr. Warner says. "I think I was lucky I didn't have anything on me."
Mr. Aft, who helped host a VIP reception for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center groundbreaking downtown hours after he was victimized on June 17, says his incident made him grateful that Clifton has neighborhood officers and a block-watch program where residents look out for each other.
"In retrospect, you think, "Gee, I did the right thing by following the instructions of an armed robber,'" he says. "But you don't expect it anywhere. Nobody expects to be robbed, to be threatened with a weapon.
"It's not the kind of thing you want to have happening in your community, in your neighborhood."
http://enquirer.com/editions/2002/07/03/loc_gun_robberies_soar.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Pasadena man shot; Report finds problems with supervision, radios
By Laura Barnhardt and Andrea F. Siegel
Sun Staff
Originally published July 3, 2002, 11:12 PM EDT
The FBI's ill-fated search for a bank robbery suspect, which led to the March shooting of an unarmed Pasadena man, was flawed from the start, according to an Anne Arundel County police report released Wednesday.
Problems ranging from mal functioning equipment to poor supervision are detailed in the investigative report, which recounts the FBI shooting of 20-year-old Joseph C. Schultz in a case of mistaken identity.
Among the findings of the 128-page report:
--Agents were working with a faulty radio system, with only one agent able to communicate with county police. That left agents without a complete description of the suspect's car and without key details from their informant.
--Agents had no way of knowing whether the car they pulled over held the suspect.
--The real suspect drove in circles around the FBI agents, who were in unmarked vehicles and out of uniform, and left the area unseen by federal agents.
--Once agents stopped the car being driven by Schultz's girlfriend, they gave conflicting orders. One agent shouted, "Open the door!" while another ordered, "Put your hands up!"
In the March 1 mix-up, Schultz, who had no connection to the Pasadena bank robbery, was shot in the face with an M-4 assault rifle by FBI Special Agent Christopher Braga.
Schultz was returning from a local mall with
girlfriend Krissy Harkum, 16. They had just stopped at a Glen Burnie 7-Eleven, where FBI agents were waiting for Michael J. Blottenberger Jr., 32, the suspect in a Feb. 20 bank robbery.
Both Schultz and Blottenberger were wearing white baseball caps. And both were passengers in red cars being driven by females.
The report was presented to an Anne Arundel County grand jury that investigated the shooting. On Tuesday, the grand jury declined to indict Braga.
Braga told the grand jury that Schultz did not put his hands up and that he believed Schultz might have been reaching for a weapon.
"The behavior of the entire FBI team in this case was appalling," Schultz's lawyer, Arnold M. Weiner, said Wednesday. "It is apparent that this mission was undertaken without any regard for the harm these agents were likely to cause to innocent civilians, and it is no wonder Joe Schultz, an innocent bystander, was almost shot to death."
The report includes comments from Schultz, who has not spoken publicly.
In one interview with county detectives, Schultz said: "When [the agent] tried the door, he told me to unlock it. He then jumped back and off to the right. My hands were up clear in front of my face, showing them I had nothing in them. I was moving both hands back to unlock the lock on the top of the door so he could see me. The rifle was pointed at me. As I was reaching for the lock, I heard a pop, felt the glass hit me and my head got all warm."
Police noted in their report that the lock was actually located near the door handle.
Weiner said the difference is a matter of inches. "He was clearly moving to the right with his hands in full view, reaching for the door latch. And the door latch in this case was a couple of inches below the window sill."
Andrew C. White, Braga's lawyer, said had not seen the report and did not have access to witness statements.
The report draws no conclusions about who was at fault, but summarizes much of what led to the shooting.
"We felt a thorough, fact-find ing probe was necessary, because an innocent person was almost killed by the actions of a law enforcement officer," said Anne Arundel County police Chief P. Thomas Shanahan. "The public needs to have confidence in their local and federal police agencies."
Braga, who took a brief voluntary leave after the shooting, has returned to duty. He could face federal criminal charges stemming from a pending review by the Justice Department's civil rights division. He also faces the possibility of internal FBI discipline.
Of the seven agents assigned to arrest Blottenberger that night, only Braga declined to speak with county detectives.
Again and again, agents pointed out flaws in their radio system, the report said. "We immediately began to have radio problems," said Special Agent Donald E. Kornek.
"I heard only intermittent radio transmissions from the surveillance/arrest team," said Special Agent Lawrence S. Brosnan. "The bureau radio system is seriously flawed," he said, blaming a 1999 injury on FBI ra dio woes. "Unless the bureau revamps the radio system, the possibility of loss of life and further injury will continue to plague the effectiveness of successful FBI investigations."
Brosnan told police that none of the agents staking out the 7-Eleven, at Route 648 and Marley Neck Boulevard, "could positively identify the passenger as Blottenberger, because they were too far away from the car."
According to 911 transcripts, the FBI's informant told dispatchers that Blottenberger had spotted the undercover agents and "has just been circling and circling and circling. He's riding past these officers."
Although the informant clearly said that Blottenberger was in a red Honda Civic, several agents had already keyed in on Schultz and Harkum, parked at the 7-Eleven in a red Pontiac Grand Am, the report shows.
Brosnan saw the Grand Am leave the parking lot. He and another agent called Braga on cell phones, telling Braga to follow it, not knowing whether the passenger was Blottenberger.
Harkum told police she was forced to the side of Fort Smallwood Road by two unmarked FBI cars. Special Agent Stephen P. Stowe who was among the four agents who jumped out of the cars and surrounded the young couple, told police that "Braga was next to me, yelling, "Show me your hands!"
Stowe said he focused on Harkum. "I yelled for her to unlock the door. As I was yelling again the passenger window exploded."
Agent L. Bradlee Sheafe told police that when he asked Braga what happened, Braga told him Schultz "had not complied" with orders to show his hands and had instead "reached toward his waist. Braga said this action put him in fear of his life as well as that of [Agent] Stowe."
Brosnan arrived to see the Grand Am's passenger window smashed, the female in hand cuffs and the male passenger sitting on the ground with an agent tending to his bloody face.
He knew immediately that the young man was not Blottenberger and told Braga so.
"Everyone was quiet," Brosnan said. http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-fbi04.story?coll=bal-local-headlines
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Pasadena man mistaken for bank-robbery suspect; 'Serious breakdowns' revealed; Anne Arundel grand jury deliberates 20 minutes
By Andrea F. Siegel and Laura Barnhardt
Sun Staff
Originally published July 3, 2002
An Anne Arundel County grand jury decided yesterday not to indict an FBI agent who mistook an unarmed Pasadena man for a suspected bank robber and shot him in the face.
The grand jury deliberated 20 minutes before declining to indict Special Agent Christopher Braga on charges of first-degree assault, second-degree assault or reckless endangerment in the shooting, county prosecutors said.
Braga shot Joseph C. Schultz, 20, in the face with an M-4 rifle March 1. Schultz was riding in a car driven by his girlfriend when FBI agents, searching for a suspect believed to be armed, pulled the car over on Fort Smallwood Road.
Schultz had nothing to do with the bank robbery; he and Krissy Harkum, 16, were returning home from Marley Station Mall in Glen Burnie.
State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee said the grand jury decision "does not in any way excuse or justify what has occurred here." FBI and county police reports on the shooting -- which led to a public apology from Baltimore's top FBI agent -- "revealed serious breakdowns in planning, supervision and communication, which contributed to this incident," he said.
Weathersbee also noted that though not every mistake results in criminal liability, civil lawsuits still could follow.
None of those at the center of the shooting -- Braga, Schultz or Harkum -- would comment on the grand jury decision; they have been told by lawyers not to speak publicly about the case.
Braga's lawyer, Andrew C. White of Baltimore, said the grand jury reached the "obviously appropriate" conclusion.
"While Agent Braga feels terrible for Mr. Schultz and his family, we were very confident that once all of the facts came out that it would be clear that Agent Braga and his fellow agents acted appropriately," White said. "This would not have been a problem if the people inside the car had complied with orders and raised their hands, which they did not."
Schultz' uncle, Will Shelley, said, "We were hoping for the best. But we figured this would be a whitewash.
"It doesn't surprise me. But you'd think after the grand jury heard Joey's testimony they would have come back with a favorable result."
Krissy Harkum's mother, Diane Harkum, said she "would've liked to have seen something come out this. I mean, after all these kids have been through, even if it was only that this [agent] got a permanent desk job and couldn't carry a gun anymore, that would've been something.
"We're just disgusted by all of this."
In the bizarre mix-up, FBI agents were looking for Michael J. Blottenberger Jr., 32, the suspect in the robbery of a Pasadena bank branch Feb. 20. He is in jail on a federal bank robbery charge, and no other suspect has been publicly identified.
According to interviews with authorities and others involved, agents were working with an informant and expected Blottenberger to pull up to a 7-Eleven at Baltimore-Annapolis and Marley Neck boulevards, wearing a gray-white baseball cap. But he passed by in a red car, apparently spooked by seeing unmarked police cars.
The informant's cell phone died, but from the store, he relayed a message that Blottenberger was in a red Honda Civic with a female driver.
Meanwhile, Schultz, wearing a white baseball cap, got out of Harkum's red Pontiac Grand Am and walked into the store to buy a Slurpee. As he left, agents keyed in on him and followed Harkum's car. Minutes later, the shooting occurred.
Weathersbee, who is seeking re-election, said he took the case to the 23-member grand jury because the FBI and county investigation reports left open questions that he wanted answered under oath, and Braga had not spoken with county investigators.
Braga testified "without immunity and voluntarily for several hours" last Tuesday, Weathersbee said, characterizing parts of that testimony as "very emotional."
Before appearing in front of the grand jury, Braga told prosecutors that "the person he thought was an armed and dangerous bank robber who wasn't going back to jail and was possibly suicidal was going to injure someone because he moved," Weathersbee said. "Even in response to commands of 'show me your hands' he couldn't see his hands."
Braga said he thought Schultz was moving, perhaps reaching for a gun, Weathersbee said.
That contrasts with previous reports that Schultz moved only to comply with agents' orders.
Schultz's lawyer, Arnold M. Weiner, would not discuss the details of the shooting.
But he faulted the FBI, saying an agency that has been apprehending bank robbers for more than 50 years should have handled this incident better. The agency, he added, should not sanction an agent who has shot two unarmed people in recent years.
Braga was one of three law enforcement officers involved in the fatal shooting of a murder suspect in Laurel in February 2000. The suspect had a loaded firearm nearby, and the shooting was ruled justified.
Schultz is being evaluated for more reconstructive * surgery, his lawyer said.
The grand jury heard 15 hours of testimony last Tuesday, Friday and yesterday from 10 people: Schultz, Harkum, Braga, FBI agents and Anne Arundel County police.
Weathersbee acknowledged problems leading to the botched traffic stop.
For example, he said, "communications were horrible." FBI radios were "spotty at best," and only one FBI car had a county police radio, a situation he said "could lead to errors and misunderstanding. And it did."
FBI officials would not comment on the grand jury decision.
Braga, who took a brief voluntary leave after the shooting, has returned to duty.
But he still faces the possibility of federal criminal charges from a pending review by the Justice Department's civil rights division. He also faces the possibility of internal discipline, termed "highly unlikely" by White.
Sun staff writer Gail Gibson contributed to this article.
http://www.sunspot.net/news/custom/guns/bal-te.md.fbi03jul03.story?coll=bal-home-headlines
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Amy E. Turnbull
Staff Writer
July 1, 2002
|
Walter Logan was targeted by the Violent Crime Task Force because he was convicted in 1976 for misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon. STAFF PHOTO | Nicole Cappello
Red folders may seem harmless enough, but what they signify for some convicted criminals is the difference between a few years in state prison and more than a dozen in a federal lock-up.
Local, state and federal law enforcement officers assign red folders to people identified by the Violent Crime Task Force as violent offenders at high risk for offending again.
The folders work like this: When a person identified by the task force is released from prison and put on probation, his criminal record is placed in a red file folder. The folder goes to the magistrate's office where, if the person is arrested again, the magistrate will have his criminal record in hand and will likely assign a high bond.
What's more, the investigation of a case involving one of the offenders will bring to bear the powers of the Wilmington Police Department, the New Hanover County Sheriff's Department, the State Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Drug Enforcement Administration, state and federal prosecutors, probation officers and the U.S. Marshals Service.
The agencies and departments then work together, sharing notes and swapping cases to maximize prison sentences for the targeted offenders. It's a program with a 100 percent conviction rate, according to those involved, netting high sentences and swift prosecution for those targeted by the task force.
Defense attorney Bill Peregoy said he represented a defendant on the Violent Crime Task Forces'* list. Charged with cocaine trafficking and gun possession, the defendant was tried in federal court, where he received a sentence of 11 more years than he would have received had he been convicted in state court - even though there were more state charges than federal.
"Even if they would have nailed him on all the charges in state court, he would have gotten less time than he got in federal court," Mr. Peregoy said.
Most often, federal convictions carry more prison time than state convictions, but armed robberies trump in state court.
When five-time felon John Gaither robbed a Belk's store with a gun last year, the state armed robbery charge carried more time than the possible federal charge of possession of a firearm by a felon.
Sixty-one days after committing the crime, Mr. Gaither was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jon David, convicted by a jury and sentenced to 13 to 15 years in state prison.
The history
Jim Modzelewski of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said the 1999 murder of Dee Dee Mott had just happened when the task force started to form. With a community outraged over the tragic death of the 16-year-old killed by a stray bullet in Creekwood, it was time to get the program under way.
Wilmington Police Chief John Cease said, "I was becoming pretty concerned about the violent crime rate and our inability to get a handle on violent crime. When I say `our,' I'm talking about the criminal justice system, not just the Police Department. I voiced that concern to the federal government, and I actually got lucky."
Chief Cease said he asked for help from the Department of Justice and ultimately had a meeting in Charlotte with District Attorney John Carriker, then-Attorney General Janet Reno, and Janice McKenzie Cole, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
"We had a very open, frank discussion about drugs, violence, guns and the linkages that go with all that, and the inability of the state criminal justice system to deal with all of that," Chief Cease said.
Over the next year, he added, "We put together a coalition of state and federal agencies to identify and define what we want to go after: violent crime with a gun."
Ultimately, the Wilmington Partnership to Cease Firearms Violence - also called Operation Ceasefire and now known as the Violent Crime Task Force - was put into action.
It was funded with money already in the coffers of the agencies elected to participate. An ATF agent, a sheriff's deputy and a police officer were assigned to the task force full-time. The Police Department houses the unit and provides a phone line and other basic office needs.
Assistant state and federal prosecutors oversee the cases, and other law enforcement agencies help with investigations as needed.
The hit list
The first order of business was to identify the area's most violent offenders. They compiled a list of 29 people with violent criminal convictions who were at large, Chief Cease said.
Since then, 67 of the most violent felons in the county have been prosecuted via the task force, District Attorney Carriker said.
Currently, 38 are in federal prison, about a dozen are in state prison, and another dozen are awaiting trial or sentencing. Mr. Carriker said the average sentence is 14 years.
Chief Cease said the prosecution of the task force's cases has been successful because, with all the agencies working together, they have "built very strong investigative cases."
Only three of the cases have gone to trial, and all were found guilty. The remaining 64 pleaded guilty without a trial, which is remarkable because task force defendants aren't given much, if anything, in the way of a plea bargain, Chief Cease said.
Wilmington Police spokeswoman Linda Rawley said the sentences have ranged from probation to 35 years in federal prison. But the record is held by Anthony Keith Cooper, who is serving more than 37 years in state prison after being targeted by the task force.
Mr. Cooper, 28, who previously served five years for a second-degree murder in Wilson County, was convicted in November and sentenced to 31 to 38 years in the state Department of Correction for robbing a pizza parlor.
Assistant District Attorney Jon David, who handles the task force's cases in state court, prosecuted Mr. Cooper, his brother, and two friends for the March 2001 robbery of the Domino's pizza shop in Ogden.
The men pistol-whipped the clerk, cutting his head to the skull. They stole a customer's wallet and held employees at bay with a gun.
Mr. Cooper was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting serious injury, and three counts of armed robbery.
His co-defendants - his brother, Jermaine Larry Cooper, and friends, Dryal Lavern Lightsey and Cerrone Maurice Hammonds - were also on the task force list, but each pleaded guilty instead of going to trial.
Jermaine Cooper and Mr. Lightsey each received sentences of 10 to 13 years. Mr. Hammonds testified against Anthony Cooper and was considered less culpable in the robbery because he was the getaway-car driver, Mr. David said. He was sentenced to four to five years in prison.
Considering his criminal history, Anthony Cooper seems the ideal candidate for the Violent Crime Task Force. Others seem less likely.
Walter Logan, for example, is a nervous and quiet 54-year-old who lives in a modest upstairs apartment on North Seventh Street with his cat Tony.
Most of Mr. Logan's convictions involve misdemeanor alcohol charges - drunk and disruptive, and drinking in public - but he pleaded guilty in 2000 to assault inflicting serious injury. He said he didn't know what he was signing when he wrote his name at the bottom of a confession, but the results were severe.
Mr. Logan was given a four-year suspended sentence, but because he was convicted in 1976 for misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon, he was targeted by the task force.
"It's been over 25 years since I went to prison," Mr. Logan said. "It felt kind of weird (to be on the hit list) because I stays to myself. I don't be hanging around people."
Mr. Logan said he doesn't think the task force program was meant for people like him because he had "no intention of doing anything anyway."
The call-in
Think of it as a high-stakes segment of Let's Make a Deal where Curtain No. 1 and Curtain No. 2 mean the difference between freedom and dozens of years in prison.
Targeted offenders are told by their probation officers to be at a certain meeting or face a probation violation.
When they arrive, they are taken through a series of rooms.
In the first room, they meet community leaders and are offered social services, including job counseling, substance-abuse treatment, mental-health aid and other programs to get them back on their feet.
Chief Cease said the idea is to give the offenders every opportunity available to turn their lives around.
In the second room, the offenders are faced with a daunting panel made up of representatives from at least 10 local, state and federal law enforcement groups.
The offender is given a red folder with a copy of his criminal record inside. Another red folder is kept in the magistrate's office.
All of the law enforcement officers in the room, the offenders are told, are watching the offenders, ready to jump if they misstep.
Law enforcement officials could not readily recall anyone who had actually taken advantage of the services offered in the first room, but the second room is bound to get their attention.
"Once they realize that everybody is looking at them and they're more or less put on notice ... I think it's enough for most of them," Agent Modzelewski said.
Mr. Logan, who sat on the receiving end of the panel's warning in November, agreed: "It had an effect on all of us who were there."
The concerns
While everyone seems to agree with getting the worst criminals off the streets, some defense attorneys are concerned that the selective prosecution of the cases may not be fair.
Defense attorney Woody White has represented several people on the hit list, and he worries that there may be a hint of zealotry in the system.
"I think in theory a violent crime task force is certainly a tool that prosecutors ought to use to identify the most dangerous criminals," Mr. White said. "However, in my experience, the background information used to identify some of the people on the list arose out of misdemeanors that did not involve weapons and involved loose allegations of violence, yet they were identified and on the list and were prosecuted more aggressively."
Mr. White said that sometimes, instead of taking the time to look into a defendant's past to determine whether he is dangerous, prosecutors just consult the hit list to determine how a case should be treated.
Mr. Peregoy has another concern: "As a practical matter, I think it's a bona fide and appropriate use of prosecutorial resources. But as a defense lawyer, it makes me a little nervous because I could see just about every crime that is a state offense being federalized, and I'm uncomfortable with that notion."
But, Mr. Peregoy added, "I do think that it has the advantage of taking the most serious felons out of circulation for the longest period of time.
The results
Last year, there was an average of one murder every month. This year, there had been only two murders as of Sunday.
There is some debate about whether this year's low murder rate is owing to the task force's efforts, but Chief Cease said the declining number of firearms-related crimes is clearly attributable to the task force.
Even though the crime rate has increased over the past several years, crimes with guns are down considerably.
According to data supplied by Chief Cease, the number of crimes involving firearms inside the city limits went down 28 percent between 1998 and 2001. If this year's trend continues in the second half of the year, the decrease will total 34 percent since 1998.
The number of arrests following crimes committed with firearms is down 60 percent since 1998.
"We're not coming across gun cases like before," Chief Cease said.
Mr. Carriker said the Violent Crime Task Force is "one of the most successful things we've ever done, and the real highlight of it is having all these agencies work together."
He said the message the task force wants the public to receive is - with apologies to Kenny Rogers - "Don't take your gun to town."
Amy Turnbull: 343-2389
amy.turnbull@wilmingtonstar.com
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/news/stories/14065newsstorypage.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Lori Sykes
Staff Writer
Posted July 3 2002
WESTON ? For real estate agent Paula Andrews, it seemed inconceivable that she would be robbed at gunpoint while showing houses to a potential buyer.
In May, however, that's exactly what happened to her.
The crime prompted the Broward County Sheriff's Office to offer a class that shows real estate agents how to protect themselves while working.
"Never in a million years did I think it would happen to me," said Andrews, of Pembroke Pines. "I feel I'm very intuitive [about people]. It makes you think."
Sheriff's Deputy David Schupp, a crime prevention officer, said he has not heard of other similar crimes in South Florida. He said the department organized the class after learning that similar incidents have occurred around the country.
"We want to nip it when we can," he said. "We like to be prepared. That was the only occurrence [nearby]; let's hope it's the last one."
The three-hour seminar was co-sponsored by the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale. So far, employees of two real estate agencies in Weston have attended the program, which will be scheduled again for real estate agents elsewhere in Broward.
The class focused on safety rules and self-defense techniques, and told the stories of two real estate agents outside Florida who have been victims of assaults.
A sheriff's deputy who has an eighth-degree black belt demonstrated how to attack an assailant in vulnerable spots, such as the eyes, groin and nose. The deputy also worked on the self-defense techniques with volunteers from the audience. Those in attendance also were advised to protect themselves by being aware of their surroundings and to use their intuition about people they meet.
Andrews, a real estate agent for 16 years, works at Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate Inc. in Weston. She said the class was helpful and she is now looking into taking a self-defense class.
"Whether a man or woman, it can happen to anyone," she said. "It's unfortunate that it's not a nice world we live in."
On May 15, Andrews had shown several houses to a man who then pulled out a gun and ordered her to drive to three banks and cash personal checks at the drive-through lanes of the banks. The man, a Fort Lauderdale resident, was subsequently arrested.
The seminar was just one of the many steps she took to make her job safer, Andrews said. Now, before showing houses to clients, she gets their mortgage pre-approved and makes a photocopy of their driver's license.
Jeff Kahn, president of the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale, said the organization encourages real estate agents to meet people at the office before showing properties. "You need to take as much precaution as possible," he said. "We need to be aware that we are challenged today more than ever with security."
The class provided tips that everyone needs to learn, said Joseph Becerra Jr., a real estate agent with Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors. At 298 pounds and 6 feet tall, Becerra, 24, may not be a likely victim. But he attended the class anyway.
"Even though I'm a big guy, it only takes a gun," said Becerra, of Davie. "I know martial arts and ways to handle people to keep them from hitting me. Still, I did learn something -- new forms of attacks with household objects like coffee pots, pens, bug sprays.
"If we do get attacked at an open house that's mainly what's going to be used," he said.
Lori Sykes can be reached at lsykes@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7907.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-we03defensejul03.story?coll=sfla-news-broward
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878