Category Archives: Law Enforcement

Bomb found in Arizona Apache Sitgreaves National Forest

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On the 16th, a portion of the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest was closed when forest service workers found a pipe bomb.

The Coconino County Sheriff’s Office says Forest Service workers found a metal pipe bomb near some trees while conducting a survey Monday along a forest road west of the community of Forest Lakes.

The forest area was closed for about six-hours to allow the Flagstaff Police Department bomb personnel to remove the device and search the area.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Jason Lurkins says the pipe bomb was next to a tree and there apparently had been a failed attempt to detonate it. There is no indication how long the device was there.

ABC15
KGUN9

Homeland agents failed to stop ATF, Fast & Furious guns from crossing border

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Fifteen months before the Fast & Furious gun scandal was unmasked in public, Homeland Security agents along the Arizona border recognized that their colleagues at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were allowing illegal guns to flow across the border to Mexican drug gangs in violation of federal policy.

The agents working for Homeland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raised objections internally to their bosses and to their ATF colleagues in late 2009 without success, but did not escalate their concerns to superiors in Washington, according to a new Homeland Security inspector general report that uncovered yet another missed opportunity inside government to stop the bungled gun trafficking investigation.

“Most Homeland Security Investigations personnel in Arizona who received information about the investigation recognized that the task force was using a flawed methodology, which was contrary to ICE policy and practices for weapons smuggling investigations,” the inspector general concluded in a little-noticed report issued late last month.

And the special agent in charge in the case for Homeland failed to appreciate that the flawed tactics in the investigation – allowing weapons to “walk” across the border – violated ICE policies, the report added.

Read more at The Washington Times

Heavy metal gets attention of the Arizona House.

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PHOENIX—Republican representative Thomas Forese has introduced two pieces of legislation aimed at metal theft.

HB 2261 would amend the criminal code of the ARS 13-1820 concerning the theft of metals. A person would commit metal theft if “without lawful authority” the person knowingly:

1. Controls ferrous metal or nonferrous metal that is the property of another with the intent to deprive the other person of the metal.
2. Obtains ferrous metal or nonferrous metal that is the property of another by means of any material misrepresentation with intent to deprive the other person of the metal.
3. Comes into control of lost, mislaid or misdelivered ferrous metal or nonferrous metal that is the property of another under circumstances providing means of inquiry as to the true owner and appropriates the metal to the person’s own or another’s use without reasonable efforts to notify the true owner.
4. Controls ferrous metal or nonferrous metal that is the property of another knowing that the metal was stolen.
5. Unless acquired in the ordinary course of business by an automotive recycler or a scrap metal dealer, the inferences listed in section 13‑2305 apply to any prosecution under subsection A, paragraph 4 of this section.

Ferrous metal is defined as metals that will attract a metal while non-ferrous metal will not.

For the purposes of prosecution, the value of the metal would include the damage to the property from which the metal was stolen which occurs during the theft.

As an additional means of combating metal theft, the Legislator has also introduced HB 2262 which would amend sections of ARS Title 44 relating to the licensing and record keeping of scrap dealers in Arizona.

Currently scrap dealers are required to register with the Department of Public Safety and keep records of any transactions they make in metals exceeding $25. The new law would require them to keep records of all transactions.

It would also add certain records that scrap dealers must keep. It would also allow cities and counties to add regulations aimed at recovering the cost of enforcing this law.

DPS would also be required to submit a report every two years to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House identifying all scrap dealers in the State of Arizona. All law enforcement officer in the state to register with a free web site that would send detailed descriptions of stolen items to scrap metal dealers and other law enforcement agencies within 100 miles of the theft.

Enraged protesters battle cops in Brooklyn streets during third night of rioting

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Police push protesters back on Church Ave. in East Flatbush. / Photo New York Daily News

Police push protesters back on Church Ave. in East Flatbush. / Photo New York Daily News

Protesters enraged over the fatal shooting of a teenager by police poured into Brooklyn streets for a third straight night Wednesday, pitching bricks, bottles and garbage in furious clashes with cops.

At least 46 demonstrators were arrested along Church Ave. in East Flatbush. Police struggled to control a hostile crowd that broke away from a planned peaceful vigil for Kimani (Kiki) Gray, 16, killed by police on Saturday night.

Gray’s sister Mahnefeh was among those arrested. A police officer suffered a gash in the face when a tossed brick hit him, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, and a window was smashed in an inspector’s car.

Read more at New York Daily News
See Also: The Examiner

Man caught on border has rare strain of TB

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Express-News
By Jason Buch
Wednesday, January 16, 2013

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding a young immigrant from Asia who officials say is infected with a rare drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis.

The man was detained by the Border Patrol trying to sneak into South Texas on Nov. 27.

Several days later, while undergoing a medical screening at the Port Isabel Service Detention Center, he was diagnosed with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, the least treatable form of the disease.

Officials declined to identify the infected man other than to say he is young and from an Asian country.

It’s only the third time since 2008 the strain has been detected in Texas, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

“This is a very rare situation, and XDR is considered to be a very dangerous disease,” said Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the department. “But it’s not easily transmitted and we have no reason to believe community exposures have occurred.”

Read more at the Williams TEA Party

Lawmakers call for probe into ‘botched’ ATF sting in Milwaukee

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WASHINGTON ––  Several members of Congress are calling for an investigation into an embarrassing series of blunders made by the Milwaukee arm of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after a newspaper reported this week that the agency conducted a months-long undercover operation that cost taxpayers thousands of dollars and netted very few results.

“I am intent on getting to the bottom of the botched ATF sting in Milwaukee,” Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., told FoxNews.com Thursday night.

Sensenbrenner along with Sen. Charles Grassley, and Reps. Darrell Issa and Robert Goodlatte, have sent a letter to Acting ATF Director Todd Jones asking the agency to look into allegations reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The newspaper claims that the agency conducted a deeply flawed sting operation that resulted in a still-missing machine gun being taken from an agent’s car, thousands of taxpayer dollars being lost in merchandise and angry residents saying that ATF officials reintroduced crime into their neighborhood. The operation comes on the heels of the botched Operation Fast and Furious anti-gun trafficking program.

Read more at Fox News

Home invasion suspect arrested after woman opens fire

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Suspect arrested at hospital

MAGNOLIA, Texas — A home invasion suspect was arrested at a hospital after a mother shot him during the crime at a Montgomery County home, deputies said Wednesday.

Erin, who asked to be identified only by her first name, told Local 2 she was putting her 6-year-old son to bed when she heard a loud noise coming from her bedroom on Mink Lake Drive Friday night.

“I threw the cover over my son and I took off running, screaming to the living room to let my dogs out,” she said.

Erin said she turned around and saw three masked men, pointing a gun right at her.

Read More at Click2Houston

Texas sheriff joins growing list of those who will not tolerate unconstitutional gun grabs from feds

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(NaturalNews) In response to calls from President Obama and his allies in Congress for expanded gun control measures, a movement is spreading among local sheriffs: More of them are standing up and saying publicly they won’t enforce any new laws they consider unconstitutional, specifically any new statutes calling for outright gun bans.

The latest local law enforcement official to lay down a pro-gun gauntlet is Collin County, Texas, Sheriff Terry Box, who declared that neither he nor his deputies would enforce unconstitutional gun laws passed or decreed by those he calls misguided politicians.

‘I won’t participate in the enforcement of laws that violate our constitutional rights’

Box issued a statement recently laying out his position:

In light of recent events I feel I need to make a public statement of my views on this subject. As the Sheriff of Collin County, Texas, I have for the past 28 years served to protect and keep safe all citizens of our county, recognizing the trust placed in me with this profoundly important responsibility.

Unfortunately, the recent surge in the numbers of innocent victims who have died at the hands of unstable criminals has prompted politicians in Washington to seek to pass laws that would seriously erode the constitutional rights of innocent and law abiding citizens.

Neither I, nor any of my deputies, will participate in the enforcement of laws that violate our precious constitutional rights, including our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

As long as I remain Sheriff of Collin County, I will not participate in the actions of misguided politicians who seek to impede our citizen’s right to all of the privileges afforded by our Constitution.

Box, who is not new to his office and seeking a reputation, posted the statement on his personal Facebook page after he said he’d been contacted by hundreds of folks asking him to take the pro-gun stand.

Read more at Natural News

Pipe dreams: Claims of legalized pot benefits quickly busted in Colo. and Wash.

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Patricia Campion
The Examiner

While pot is still banned under federal law, voters in Colorado and Washington passed referendums legalizing marijuana for recreational use on Nov. 6. Despite claims by advocates that legalization would reduce crime, The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that “two University of Colorado Boulder students face multiple felony charges after the marijuana-laced brownies they brought to class put their professor in the hospital.”

Thomas Ricardo Cunningham, 21, and Mary Elizabeth Essa, 19, were arrested on suspicion of planning and intentionally committing second-degree assault and inducing consumption of controlled substances by fraudulent means.

Officials said “two other students were hospitalized with anxiety and lightheadedness, and five more had a ‘bad reaction.'”

“Putting marijuana into a food product and providing it to somebody without their knowledge has always been illegal, and that will continue to be illegal, even after Amendment 64,” campus police spokesman Ryan Huff said Sunday. “So I just want to make this clear that these are serious felony cases and we take these very seriously.”

Read more at The Examiner

Would legalizing marijuana actually increase problems?

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With the recent legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington and marijuana dispensaries being all the rage, YouTube video reporter Steven Crowder takes a humorous, but insightful, look into the legalization of the drug.

His report makes some interesting discoveries such as the fact that some people get a prescription for the drug to purchase from dispensaries and sell on the open market. He makes the point, as well, that pro-marijuana organizations claiming the drug is not that harmful may actually cause kids who would otherwise stray from the drug to try it.

While Crowder does not take either side of the cause, he does make some interesting points interviewing people concerned with various sides of the issue.