Tag: crime

ACLU challenges Illinois eavesdropping act

Seth Anderson0 comment

Continuous Video Recording in Progress

Kudos to the ACLU, the police shouldn’t have rights that citizens don’t.

It’s not unusual or illegal for police officers to flip on a camera as they get out of their squad car to talk to a driver they’ve pulled over.

But in Illinois, a civilian trying to make an audio recording of police in action is breaking the law.

“It’s an unfair and destructive double standard,” said Adam Schwartz, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

On Wednesday, the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago challenging the Illinois Eavesdropping Act, which makes it criminal to record not only private but also public conversations made without consent of all parties.

With cell phones that record audio and video in almost every pocket, the ability to capture public conversations, including those involving the police, is only a click away. That raises the odds any police action could wind up being recorded for posterity.

Opponents of the act say that could be a good thing and certainly shouldn’t lead to criminal charges.

The ACLU argues that the act violates the First Amendment and has been used to thwart people who simply want to monitor police activity.

(click to continue reading ACLU challenges Illinois eavesdropping act – chicagotribune.com.)

and isn’t this backwards?

Illinois is one of only a few states, including Massachusetts and Oregon, where it is illegal to record audio of conversations that take place in public settings without the permission of everyone involved.((unless you are a cop, of course))

Illinois’ eavesdropping ban was extended in 1994 to include open and obvious audio recording, even if it takes place on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists and in a volume audible to the “unassisted human ear.”

The police can record you without asking your permission, but even on a public street, you can’t video them? Ridiculous.

Miami blogger Carlos Miller has been advocating changing these sorts of laws for quite a while. If you read a few postings there, you’ll become progressively more angry at police state tactics.

Mehserle Guilty in Killing That Inflamed Oakland

Seth Anderson0 comment

We noted this travesty at the time it occurred, hope Oakland doesn’t explode into riots as result of the light punishment.

Purple Lotus Society - Lomo

A white Bay Area transit officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Thursday by a Los Angeles jury in the shooting death of an unarmed black man on Jan. 1, 2009, ending a closely watched trial that percolated with racial tension and cries for peace in the city of Oakland, Calif., where the killing occurred.

The officer, Johannes Mehserle, 28, had been accused of a more serious charge, second-degree murder, in the death of Oscar Grant III, 22, butcher’s apprentice who was shot while lying face down on a platform after being removed from a Bay Area Rapid Transit train during a fight.

City officials were worried about a reprise of the 2009 riots that erupted in downtown Oakland, with crowds burning cars and smashing storefronts after Mr. Grant’s shooting, which was captured on cellphone video and widely disseminated on the Internet.

(click to continue reading Officer Guilty in Killing That Inflamed Oakland – NYTimes.com.)

 

Illinois Law Requires Testing All Rape Kits

Seth Anderson0 comment

Amazing that other states don’t already have this requirement, and that Illinois has been so slack in processing rape kits.

Wheels Go RoundFacing criticism that physical evidence from sexual assault cases in Illinois often went unanalyzed, Gov. Patrick J. Quinn this week signed a law requiring the police to test all rape kits. State officials and victims’ advocates said it is the first such law in the nation.

Over the past year, critics had exposed a backlog of thousands of untested rape kits in Illinois, and officials said the law would send an important message.

“As a direct result of this law, we will increase the number of arrests and prosecutions of sex offenders and get them out of our communities and into prison,” said Lisa Madigan, the state’s attorney general.

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch released a report showing that since 1995, only about 20 percent of rape kits, which contain physical evidence obtained from victims, could be confirmed as having been tested in Illinois. More than 4,000 kits had gone untested, the report found.

Testing of evidence like semen, saliva and other DNA samples can be used to identify an offender, to connect a case to another rape or to exonerate innocent suspects.

“Illinois’ failure to test DNA evidence is not only an insult to rape victims — it puts all women at risk by leaving rapists who could be identified at large, some of whom may attack again,” said Sarah Tofte, a researcher for Human Rights Watch.

The problem is widespread, with reports of thousands of untested kits in cities including Detroit and Houston.

(click to continue reading Illinois Law Requires Testing All Rape Kits to End Backlog – NYTimes.com.)

Also, who is funding this? The State of Illinois isn’t, as there isn’t any money to be had. The Federal Government has more important priorities – war, tax cuts and subsidies for Fortune 100 corporations – so talk is good, but execution will be proof.

But some worried that that language provided an out if funds were not available for tests — a distinct possibility, they said, for a state already facing a budget deficit of at least $12 billion.

Mr. Quinn said the state would apply for federal grants to test the backlog and find additional state money if necessary.

Human Rights Watch said the law could be a model for other states. “It’s a landmark piece of legislation, but there is this big loophole,” Ms. Tofte said. “The law is not going to be effective if the funding is not there.”

Through the Cracks Now Available

Seth Anderson0 comment

If you are in the market for a crime novel, one set in Chicago, no less, then why not pick up Babrara Fister’s new novel, Through The Cracks? Ms. Fister was kind enough to suggest my photograph be used as the basis of the cover, and David Baldeosingh Rotstein of St. Martin’s Publishing Group did so.1

Tunnel of Blues
Tunnel of Blues became…


“Through the Cracks” (Barbara Fister)

When Chicago private investigator Anni Koskinen takes on a new client, she finds herself working on an impossible case. After spending twenty years in prison, a black man convicted in a notorious rape case has had his sentence overturned. The victim wants to know who was really responsible for the crime that scarred her life. But even if Anni can find out who committed the brutal crime decades ago, a conviction will be impossible—unless the rapist has struck again.

The resourceful victim has uncovered evidence indicating that a serial rapist may still be at work, attacking women with ferocious anger. But as Anni digs deeper, the politically ambitious state’s attorney who prosecuted the original rape case insists that the conviction was solid. He believes there was no miscarriage of justice—other than that a violent felon has been released on a technicality.

As Anni’s cold case heats up, her friend Dugan, a CPD detective, is involved in a heater case of his own. An undocumented Mexican gang member has been arrested for the murder of a missing woman, and his uncertain fate has gripped the city and fueled anti-immigrant sentiment.

As both investigations unfold, the impact of racial prejudice radiates cracks through the criminal justice system, and it is through those cracks that Anni must try to glimpse the truth.

About the Author Barbara Fister lives in rural Minnesota, where she works as a librarian at a small liberal arts college. Please visit barbarafister.com.

(click to continue reading Amazon.com: Through the Cracks (9780312374921): Barbara Fister: Books.)

Buy a copy of Through the Cracks! Support the arts!

Footnotes:
  1. paying me a small, one-time fee, of course [↩]

Gizmodo Versus Apple

Seth Anderson0 comment

By now you’ve probably heard that police served a warrant on Jason Chen, the editor of the technology blog Gizmodo, which is owned by Gawker Media, and seized several computers and storage devices looking for evidence about a blog post discussing the forthcoming iPhone 4g1. I’ve been too busy to obsessively read all the news coverage, but what I have read has been interesting.

Pippin's New MBA

Such as:

However…
The search warrant is ambiguous about the specific reason the police gave for the search and seizure. Specifically, it’s possible—likely, even—that the police believe Gawker Media committed the felony by acquiring the iPhone (“buying stolen property”).
If that’s the “probable cause” the police used to obtain the warrant, the journalist shield law may not apply.
The police got the warrant by arguing their belief that property at Jason Chen’s house met the following criteria :
* It was used as the means of committing a felony
* It tends to show that a felony has been committed or that a particular person committed a felony
So now the question is… Was the suspected “felony” the THEFT of the iPhone (in which case police want to find out the identity of the thief)? Or was it BUYING STOLEN PROPERTY (in which case Gawker Media and/or Jason Chen may soon be accused of felonies?)

[Click to continue reading GIZMODO SEARCH WARRANT AMBIGUOUS: Police May Allege That GIZMODO Committed The Felony]

Or the NYT

In contrast to Mr. Zimmerman’s views, David Sugden, a California lawyer who specializes in intellectual property litigation, said the state shield law might not apply, if stolen property were involved.

“They could be in a tough spot,” said Mr. Sugden, referring to Gizmodo. “They are trying to turn this case into an issue of protection for online journalists, whereas the other side is going to make it look like someone committed a crime.”

Mr. Sugden cited an example with celebrity images that are often bought by gossip sites like TMZ.com or Us Weekly. He said, “When TMZ takes photos of a celebrity, it’s in plain view, which is legal,” but cautioned, “TMZ would be in trouble if the reporters were breaking into houses to take those photos of people.”

Mr. Sugden said Gizmodo’s best defense would be to argue that it didn’t know the phone was Apple’s property when it was shown to them. “If someone is accused of buying stolen property, it’s not just an issue of whether the property was stolen, it’s a matter of if they knew it was stolen or not,” he said. “The circumstances of the transaction play a large role.”

[Click to continue reading Can Gizmodo Win the iPhone Legal Battle? – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com]

BoingBoing

Police seized Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s computers. Understandable, given that Gizmodo bought a prototype cellphone which may have been stolen! The obvious assumption is that they believe Chen may have been party to a crime, but it’s also true that the police’s priorities are not those of Apple. The raid could be aimed mostly at learning the identity of the original thief. Stepping beyond the particulars here, however skeevy they may be, this could spell trouble in blogland: a source can’t know what a journalist might do that authorities could

If you read comments at news sites, so many are laughably erroneous, seizing upon the opportunity to bash Apple for perceived crimes against humanity. Many of these foam-at-the-mouth Apple haters claim that Apple’s jack-booted thugs have something to do with the District Attorney’s office actions. While it is true that a District Attorney will probably take a phone call from the corporate counsel of a prominent business located in the district, especially a corporation that contributes much tax revenue to the county’s budget, there aren’t many DAs who would act unless there was a potential actionable crime to investigate. It isn’t like Steve Jobs can order the San Mateo Country District Attorney to break the door of just any blogger without cause.

Apple spent many thousands of dollars creating a prototype, some estimates on the cost range from $15,000 to $20,000, of course they have a vested interest in retrieving their property. Even ignoring Apple’s normal media frenzy practices, and ignoring intellectual property concerns2, that’s significant enough value reported stolen to be of interest of law enforcement. It isn’t the same as you losing your cellphone on the bus, it just isn’t.

Engadget, owned by Time Warner, was advised by its lawyers not to purchase the iPhone 4G, publishing photos of it were sufficient. They are not in the cross-hairs of the DA Office either. Gizmodo and Gawker have been reckless, treating the whole incident as a lark, publishing details about criminal acts they probably wish they hadn’t, and still don’t seem to grasp the seriousness of the matter.

The Apple engineer supposedly left his phone on a bar stool, but the only public statement about the details of how the iPhone ended up in a stranger’s possession was issued by Gawker Media. What if the Apple engineer went to the bathroom3 and when he came back his phone was gone? The finder launched the phone, launched the Apple engineer’s Facebook app, figured out his name, but couldn’t figure out how to return the phone to the engineer? Once the Apple engineer figured out his phone was really missing, he remotely wiped it, but before that happened, the finder conveniently didn’t bother to contact the owner of the phone, or even leave the phone with the bartender. In other words, the “finder” had no intention of returning the phone without getting paid first.

A red herring often discussed is whether the police did anything wrong seizing the computers of Gizmodo blogger Jason Chen. Thieves are usually not accorded special consideration, even if they are bloggers, or journalists. I can’t see that it matters if bloggers are journalists, or journalists are bloggers, or whatever. Stolen property is not the same as evidence of weapons of mass destruction, for instance. A stolen car is a stolen car even if the thief, or the person that purchases the stolen car, has a blog. From my perspective, the iPhone 4G was stolen goods, and should be treated as such. And from my perfunctory reading of relevant California law, the authorities agree.

Apple Logos

Randy B. Singer commented on a Tidbits email list:

California law differs from some other states with regard to finding something and not returning it. In California there is the concept of ‘larceny by conversion.” (Actually it is called that in the common law, not in California’s statutory law. But the concept is the same.) This occurs when you come into possession of something that belongs to another, by non-nefarious means, and then you assert dominion or control over that possession in a manner contrary to the rights of the owner.

Selling something that you find that belongs to another would be one way to commit a “theft” under this law. Another way would be to offer it to someone else to dissect and photograph for the public, especially if it is obvious that it is a device that the owner means to keep secret.

Another point is that reporter shield laws in the U.S. (including California) generally protect reporters from searches for privileged information or from revealing anonymous sources. But they usually don’t apply in criminal cases, and I have never heard of one applying in a case where the reporter is accused of a crime that is the essence of the case

Footnotes:
  1. I had a previous version of this post that was lost due to a html error or a bug with my blogging software: ecto. First drafts are usually better, and I know I had come up with a few well crafted sentences that are gone now. Oh well [↩]
  2. neither of which Apple is ignoring – some have asserted that the intellectual property is worth millions of dollars, or more. I have no way of independently verifying those numbers, but they are plausible. [↩]
  3. it was his birthday, and he had consumed a few beers apparently [↩]

Should There Be an Inquisition for the Pope

Seth Anderson5 Comments

Yes, and more. Secular punishment for criminals who hide behind religion.

Church Heavies - Roof of St. Peters, Vatican City 1993

MoDo writes:

It doesn’t seem right that the Catholic Church is spending Holy Week practicing the unholy art of spin.

Complete with crown-of-thorns imagery, the church has started an Easter public relations blitz defending a pope who went along with the perverse culture of protecting molesters and the church’s reputation rather than abused — and sometimes disabled and disadvantaged — children.

The church gave up its credibility for Lent. Holy Thursday and Good Friday are now becoming Cover-Up Thursday and Blame-Others Friday.

This week of special confessions and penance services is unfolding as the pope resists pressure from Catholics around the globe for his own confession and penance about the cascade of child sexual abuse cases that were ignored, even by a German diocese and Vatican office he ran.

If church fund-raising and contributions dry up, Benedict’s P.R. handlers may yet have to stage a photo-op where he steps out of the priest’s side of the confessional and enters the side where the rest of his fallible flock goes.

Or maybe 30-second spots defending the pope with Benedict’s voice intoning at the end: “I am infallible, and I approve this message.”

[Click to continue reading Maureen Dowd – Should There Be an Inquisition for the Pope? – NYTimes.com]

And remove the Church’s tax-exempt status while we’re at it. Criminal organizations shouldn’t get special concessions from the government.

Sideline

Dowd refutes the six PR strategies the Catholic Church and its supporters are using, but bottom line is that nobody should be exempt from laws of Caesar, even and especially the Pope.

Netflixed: Gomorrah

Seth Anderson0 comment


“Gomorrah (The Criterion Collection)” (Criterion)

A non-glamourous look at the working class1 of the Naples crime organization. Documentary feel, and based in reality, this isn’t a film celebrating the life of crime.

The intertwining tales of a delivery boy, a tailor, a businessman and two cocky teenagers form the fabric of this gritty and lyrical examination of the influential Neapolitan mob known as the Camorra. Peering into a multitude of social strata within present-day Naples, director Matteo Garrone’s film — a hybrid of melodrama, crime and art-film genres — was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe and a Best Documentary Independent Spirit Award. [Click to Netflix Gomorrah]


“Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples’ Organized Crime System” (Roberto Saviano)

I liked it a lot. I might even pick up a copy of the book, despite not usually veering into best seller territory

From Roger Ebert’s review:

Roberto Saviano, who wrote the best seller that inspired the movie, went undercover, used informants, even (I learn from John Powers on NPR) worked as a waiter at their weddings. His book named names and explained exactly how the Camorra operates. Now he lives under 24-hour guard, although as the Roman poet Juvenal asked, “Who will guard the guards?”

Matteo Garrone, the director, films in the cheerless housing projects around Naples. “See Naples and die” seems to be the inheritance of children born here. We follow five strands of the many that Saviano unraveled in his book, unread by me. There is an illegal business in the disposal of poisonous waste. A fashion industry that knocks off designer lines and works from sweatshops. Drugs, of course. And then we meet teenagers who think they’re tough and dream of taking over locally from the Camorra. And kids who want to be gangsters when they grow up.

None of these characters ever refer to “The Godfather.” The teenagers know De Palma’s “Scarface” by heart. Living a life of luxury, surrounded by drugs and women, is perhaps a bargain they are willing to make even if it costs their lives. The problem is that only death is guaranteed. No one in this movie at any time enjoys any luxury. One of them, who delivers stipends to the families of dead or jailed Camorra members, doesn’t even have a car and uses a bicycle. The families moan that they can’t make ends meet, just like Social Security beneficiaries.

[Click to continue reading Gomorrah :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews]

Terry Gross and John Powers piece on NPR from February, 2009:

“Gomorrah” is based on a powerful book by an ambitious, young Neapolitan journalist named Roberto Saviano who saw his own father badly beaten because he called an ambulance for one of the mob’s victims. Fueled by righteous anger, Saviano did undercover reporting on the docks at an illegal textile factory, and he even waited tables at Camorra weddings. The result was a passionate, highly personal expose whose visibility annoyed the mob’s bosses, who are evidently not avuncular old fellows like Marlon Brando. These dons issued their version of a fatwa back in 2006, and three years later, Saviano, just 29 years old, is still living a life of bodyguards, armored cars and safe houses.

While Saviano’s book burns hot, he’s implicitly his story’s crusading hero. Garrone’s approach is cool, detached and almost anthropological. He knows that in a movie, Saviano’s feverish style would make “Gomorrah” exciting in the wrong way, turn it into operatic melodrama or pulp fiction.

Featuring no heroes, Garrone’s movie is pointedly anti-mythological, never more so than in its treatment of murder. “Gomorrah” is actually far less violent than “The Godfather” or “Goodfellas,” but it seems more brutal for Garrone offers no cinematically cool deaths and nobody softens the blow with catchy lines about killing not being personal, only business.

[Click to continue reading The Gritty Gangsters Of ‘Gomorrah’ : NPR]

Manohla Dargis concludes the NYT review:

I don’t want to overplay the film’s violence — it has a lower body count than the average Hollywood action flick — or underplay Mr. Garrone’s artistry. But part of what’s bracing about “Gomorrah,” and makes it feel different from so many American crime movies, is both its deadly serious take on violence and its global understanding of how far and wide the mob’s tentacles reach, from high fashion to the very dirt. There’s a heaviness to the bloodletting here, which has pressed down on this world and emptied its faces, halls and apartments of life. This is a world in which no one laughs, populated by men who are so busy killing one another that they don’t realize they’re as good as dead already.

Though Mr. Garrone doesn’t point a finger at the audience, he doesn’t let anyone off the hook. Toward the end of the film, the tailor accidentally catches sight of Scarlett Johansson on television as she smilingly promenades on a red carpet in one of the gowns he helped to make. As the announcers chatter about the gown (“an apparent simplicity, but in reality, very elaborate”), and the paparazzi scream for the star, the tailor smiles wistfully at his creation, which he and a roomful of women painstakingly hand-sewed in a gloomy factory for too many hours and too little money. It’s a cream-colored dress with a nice drape and satiny sheen, and while you can’t see the blood that went into every stitch, it’s there.

[Click to continue reading Movie Review – Gomorrah – Lesser-Known Mobsters, as Brutal as the Old Ones – NYTimes.com]

Footnotes:
  1. for lack of a better term [↩]

Reading Around on November 26th through December 1st

swanksalot0 comment

A few interesting links collected November 26th through December 1st:

  • Movie Review – Gomorrah – Lesser-Known Mobsters, as Brutal as the Old Ones – NYTimes.com – A snapshot of hell, the film takes its biblically inflected punning title from the Camorra, or Neapolitan Mafia, the largest of Italy’s crime gangs, with 100 barely organized, incessantly warring clans and some 7,000 members. Based in and around Naples, the Camorra (it means gang) smuggles cigarettes, drugs, guns and people, polluting the province with fear and worse. Unlike the better-known Sicilian Mafia, which took root in America in the late 19th century and in Hollywood thereafter, the Camorra has never had a significant presence in this country, pop cultural or otherwise. Until now, its reign of terror has been largely in reality and not on the screen, which explains why the world in this film can feel so alien: the movies haven’t yet imagined it.
  • Gomorrah :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews – The film is a curative for the romanticism of “The Godfather” and “Scarface.” The characters are the foot soldiers of the Camorra, the crime syndicate based in Naples that is larger than the Mafia but less known. Its revenues in one year are said to be as much as $250 billion — five times as much as Bernard Madoff took years to steal. The final shot suggests that the Camorra is invested in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center. The film is based on fact, not fiction.

  • This Progression of What – I’ve been writing
    These poems every day
    For many months now.
    Even though I haven’t been paid
    A single cent, I’d rather be remembered
    For this, these words,
    Over being recalled
    As an efficient
    Account executive
    Any day.


  • “Trouble in Paradise – Criterion Collection” (Criterion)

  • Trouble in Paradise :: rogerebert.com :: Great Movies – The sexual undertones are surprisingly frank in this pre-Code 1932 film, and we understand that none of the three characters is in any danger of mistaking sex for love. Both Lily and Mariette know what they want, and Gaston knows that he has it. His own feelings for them are masked beneath an impenetrable veneer of sophisticated banter.

    Herbert Marshall takes ordinary scenes and fills them with tension because of the way he seems to withhold himself from the obvious emotional scripting. He was 42 when he made the film, handsome in a subdued rather than an absurd way, every dark hair slicked close to his scalp, with a slight stoop to his shoulders that makes him seem to be leaning slightly toward his women, or bowing. His walk is deliberate and noticeably smooth; he lost a leg in World War I, had a wooden one fitted, and practiced so well at concealing his limp that he seems to float through a room.

Organized crime and mushrooms

Seth Anderson0 comment

Amusing tale of the intersection between historic food collection and capitalism aka the criminal element.

Wild Mushrooms

It is a great French autumnal tradition that furnishes an essential ingredient in some of the nation’s finest dishes. Yet the once tranquil pastime of mushroom hunting has fallen victim to organised crime as city-based gangs descend on the countryside in search of a fungus that brings quick, easy profits.

With professional pickers from France, but also Spain and Romania, gathering ceps, milk-caps, black trumpets and other delicacies worth thousands of euros, forest owners have decided to strike back.

They are planning to introduce mushroom picking licences to regulate an activity that has become a lucrative business, The Times has learnt.

[Click to continue reading Organised crime mushrooms as French fungi trade becomes lucrative – Times Online ]

Ganoderma Mushroom

The old ways of communal sharing are being replaced by quick-get-rich schemes:

landowners had traditionally allowed their neighbors to hunt mushrooms to cook with their omelets, chestnuts or scallops.

“The law says mushrooms belong to the landowner, but the practice was always tolerated so long as it was for family consumption.”

However, over the past couple of years, gangs — notably from Marseilles — have been pillaging woods in southern France and selling their finds on the black market to the restaurant trade and food industry. “An experienced picker can make between €5,000 and €7,000 in a fortnight, which is significant revenue,” said Mr Lauriac.

chantrelle oyster

Things you probably shouldn't eat

Homage to George L. Kelling

swanksalot0 comment
Homage to George L. Kelling
Homage to George L. Kelling, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

Broken window theory in action.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Windows_Theory

Building owned by the CTA has had a broken window for several years now.

and still has broken windows. You’d think some city official would have noticed by now

Texas and Death Row

Seth Anderson0 comment

Is there hope for Texas? We’ll see…

Dead Duck

Even in Texas they are having their doubts. The state that executes more people than any other by far – it will account for half the prisoners sent to the death chamber in the US this year – is seeing its once rock-solid faith in capital punishment shaken by overturned convictions, judicial scandals and growing evidence that at least one innocent man has been executed.

The growth of DNA forensic evidence has seen nearly 140 death row convictions overturned across the US, prompting abolition and moratoriums in other states that Texas has so far resisted.

But the public mood is swinging in the conservative state, which often seems to have an Old Testament view of justice. A former governor, Mark White – previously a strong supporter of the death penalty – has joined those calling for a reconsideration of capital punishment because of the risk of executing an innocent person.

The number of death sentences passed by juries in Texas has fallen sharply in recent years, reflecting a retreat from capital punishment in many parts of America after DNA evidence led to the release of scores of condemned prisoners.

The number of death sentences passed annually in the US has dropped by about 60% in the past decade, to around 100.

“In Texas we have seen a constant stream of individual cases that really destroy public faith and integrity in our criminal justice system,” said Steve Hall, former chief of staff to the Texas attorney general for eight years, who is now an anti-death penalty activist.

[Click to continue reading Texas accounts for half of executions in US – but now has doubts over death row | World news | The Guardian ]

The vocal and partisan Christian Taliban minority in Texas has given the state a bad name, but perhaps they might come to their senses, in our lifetimes. How can killing an innocent man be reconciled with their god’s commandments? It cannot, so either the Christian Taliban has to give up their doctrine, or change their government’s behavior in in their name. Rick Perry would rather kill a few innocents than admit he might be wrong, will he remain governor?

Lone Star Lame Duck

In Dallas county alone, 24 people have been exonerated and the new district attorney has created a conviction integrity unit to examine other suspected miscarriages of justice.

Recent attention has focused on a high profile case which may become the first officially acknowledged miscarriage of justice which led to a man being executed.

The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, has been accused of gerrymandering a commission examining the evidence against Cameron Todd Willingham who was executed in 2004 for the murder of his three young daughters in an arson attack on his home. Perry abruptly replaced the chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission as it was about to hold hearings into a report by its own expert, who described the conviction as based on “junk science”. The new chairman called off the hearing.

Michael Nolan and his Batman-like plan foiled

Seth Anderson0 comment


“The Dark Knight (Two-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy)” (Warner Home Video)

Michael Nolan, brother of Dark Knight director, Christopher Nolan, planned escape from the Metropolitan Correctional Center – a downtown Chicago jail – using 31 feet of sheets knotted as rope, a harness, a razor, and a metal clip for picking locks.

Metropolitan Correction Center
[Metropolitan Correctional Center – a Harry Weese joint]

Costa Rican authorities charged Nolan three years ago with murder and kidnapping in the 2005 torture and slaying of Florida accountant Robert Cohen, who allegedly was blamed for losing $7 million of a Florida businessman’s money.

“This is not a movie, it is real, you cannot give this number to anyone or I am dead,” Cohen allegedly told his daughter in a desperate phone call before he died.

Luis Alonso Douglas Mejia, a bellboy seen driving Nolan’s rented car, was convicted in Costa Rica of aggravated homicide.

In charging papers that read like a Hollywood script, Costa Rican authorities alleged Nolan posed as a wealthy Paris jewel dealer named McCall-Oppenheimer to lure Cohen to a meeting in an attempt to recover the $7 million. There was evidence the two men spent time together, attending an Andrea Bocelli concert, and ate breakfast together the day Cohen vanished, but nothing showed Nolan was directly involved in the slaying, a U.S. federal judge found in August.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Mason said Nolan could be extradited to Costa Rica — but only for using a fake British passport.

Nolan’s attorney, Zachary Fardon, called the charges “pure bunk hyperbole” at a June hearing, according to a transcript. Fardon did not return a call or e-mail seeking comment Thursday.

Though charges were never filed, Chicago police were investigating Nolan and a check-kiting scam that allegedly brought in nearly $1 million, a police source said.

The scam allegedly unfolded in 2007 when his brother was in Chicago filming “The Dark Knight,” the source said. Nolan allegedly used the connection to the blockbuster movie to cozy up to Chicago banks, sometimes bringing champagne to meetings about loans, the source said. He also allegedly promised rides or pictures in the Batmobile.

The investigation halted, though, when police learned of the federal inquiry.

A trim man who dressed casually, Nolan sometimes talked about ear and sinus problems that were supposedly the result of underwater and parachute training he said he performed as part of an elite British commando unit, said Tom Sedlacek, a suburban businessman who lent Nolan $600,000. Nolan told Sedlacek he now used his military skills running an international bank collection service and needed the loans to finish a job in Costa Rica.

[Click to continue reading Batman-like plan: Brother of ‘Dark Knight’ director planned escape from a Chicago jail, officials say — chicagotribune.com]

Metropolitan Correction Center Blues
[another view of the Metropolitan Correctional Center]

Related note, Dark Knight is still a lame movie, plotwise. The mise en scène was interesting, especially since so much was filmed in Chicago, but the film itself was a bit boring. Especially considering Memento is such a good film [Netflix], as is The Prestige [Netflix]. Insomnia [Netflix], a remake of a much better 1997 Norwegian film of the same name [Netflix], was ok, but since I had seen the original first, the remake didn’t make much of an impact.

Faux Ad Agency Execs

Seth Anderson0 comment

Almost amusingly brazen scheme: scammers pose as advertising account executives, and convince publishers to host fake advertisements for legitimate sounding corporations. The advertisements are embedded with malicious code and/or lead to fake websites, the goal is to collect names and addresses that can be resold, or worse. Dozens of high profile ad agencies have been targeted, as well as high profile websites like The New York Times, the Gawker Media group, and others who don’t want to publicly admit they’ve been duped.

crime plus 8 mailbox

The scam goes something like this: Someone posing as an agency executive or marketer approaches a publisher with a credible e-mail domain like vonage-inc.com or hyundai-inc.com and asks for a quick turnaround campaign, often over a weekend. The ads then install malware or harvest user identities and continue to do so until the publisher figures it out. Often they don’t and the “advertiser” — sometimes part of a European organized-crime syndicate — will even pay for the campaign and run another.

…

What do the scammers want? Eyeballs, and installs, for the most part. Some are paid by the number of malware installs they can get; others by the number of identities harvested or number of computers than can be used remotely as part of a bot network. In all cases, the bigger and more trusted the site, the easier to make money. “It’s purely financially motivated,” said John Harrison, manger at security firm Symantec.

Gawker Media was one of the latest to fall victim, and ran a campaign last week that installed malware on visitors to Gawker sites for several days until the ads were discovered. The scammers were clever enough to credibly pose as employees of Spark SMG, a unit of Publicis Groupe, and had a detailed knowledge of Spark clients and repertoire of industry lingo convincing enough industry insiders to create a fake campaign for Suzuki across Gawker sites.

As is typical, they created a legitimate-looking e-mail address, @spark-SMG.com (real Spark employees are @sparksmg.com), and called from a Chicago area code. Their ads only infected computers in intervals, so routine tests on the ads wouldn’t discover the malicious code.

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Mr. Caruso said the scammers would have very likely paid for the campaign. Depending on the goal of the scam, it can be a very good business. Identities can be resold to organized crime; scare ads can harvest sales of phony anti-virus software. In the end, the goal is not to get caught, because when they do, Mr. Caruso said, “they have to change their name, change their LLC and come up with a new scam.”

[Click to continue reading Advertising: Latest Ad Scammers: Faux Ad Agency Execs – Advertising Age – Digital]

Crime Scene

Sterling Cooper never had to deal with this aspect of the modern world…

Reading Around on August 31st through September 1st

swanksalot0 comment

A few interesting links collected August 31st through September 1st:

Ridealong

Seth Anderson0 comment

As Mo Ryan, the Chicago Tribune television critic tweeted earlier today, there is Fox television drama being produced by Shawn Ryan. I might even watch an episode or two – especially if Chicago is the central character in the drama.1

City of Chicago Department of Police

Fox has given a put pilot order to “Ridealong,” a Chicago-set cop show from “The Shield’s” Shawn Ryan.
Project’s a personal passion project of Ryan’s, who grew up in nearby Rockford, Ill. “Ridealong” will center on three groups of police officers –ranging from uniformed beat cops to the female chief of police.

Ryan is set to write and exec produce the hourlong drama, which comes from 20th Century Fox TV.

Ryan plans to shoot the skein in Chicago, which he plans to make a major part of the show.

“It’s a city I’m very familiar with, and one I haven’t seen photographed much, at least on TV,” Ryan said, “In my opinion, Chicago has become the center of the universe: It’s the place that Barack Obama comes from, it’s a candidate to host the Olympics, and it’s where Oprah dispels her wisdom.

“When I pitched it to the people at Fox, (Chicago was) the first character I described,” Ryan said. “It’s a gorgeous town and is the most interesting architectural city in America.”

Ryan said Chicago is also a “city with a big crime problem at the moment,” which will inform the show.

Ryan said “Ridealong” will mostly take place on the streets of Chicago, and will be populated by unique people — including the central lead character, a Polish-American cop who plays up his heritage.

[Click to continue reading Fox on Ryan’s ‘Ridealong’ – Entertainment News, TV News, Media – Variety]

I wanted David Simon and Ed Burns to extend their show, The Wire, and set it in Chicago, but I guess they are busy working on the Haymarket Riot film without a working title. Ridealong (possibly) is an acceptable substitute.

April 6 2007

Ms. Ryan2, interviewed Mr. Ryan:

No filming dates have been set, but if the “Ridealong” pilot gets the green light, it would be shot in Chicago in the spring. If Fox orders a full series, Ryan wants to film that in the Windy City as well.

“These things always come down to finances and I’m told that at the moment that Chicago is film-friendly and feasible,” Ryan said.

The show is “mostly about cops, but we will deal with how cops are affected/stymied/supported by local political elements,” Ryan said. “Ridealong” will also feature a “young, female chief of police and her attempts to navigate Chicago politics.”

So how will the show be different from “Hill Street Blues” — or Ryan’s own influential cop drama, “The Shield”?

“I’ll take comparisons to either of those shows any time,” but Ryan said “Ridealong” will be “very different” from either the NBC classic or the influential FX drama.

“I definitely would not be interested in doing the network version of ‘The Shield,'” he noted.

“Ridealong” will be “filmed primarily on the streets with our cops’ vehicles serving as their offices. It will be part cop procedural, part buddy comedy, part political thriller, part undercover drama… or it will just be a huge mess,” he said. “But I’m going to try to make it good.”

[Click to continue reading The Watcher: ‘Shield’ creator’s new cop show a ‘love letter’ to Chicago ]

Alleys are life, embodied

Worth paying attention to, maybe they’ll need some photos for location scouting?

Footnotes:
  1. television shows don’t really hold my interest, with a few notable exceptions [↩]
  2. no relation to Shawn Ryan, as far as I know [↩]