Clipmarks | Newfman's 'crime' clips

25 years murder-free in ‘Gun Town USA'

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:01:44 GMT

clipped by: Newfman

As the nation debates whether more guns or fewer can prevent tragedies like the Virginia Tech Shootings, a notable anniversary passed last month in a Georgia town that witnessed a dramatic plunge in crime and violence after mandating residents to own firearms.

In March 1982, 25 years ago, the small town of Kennesaw – responding to a handgun ban in Morton Grove, Ill. – unanimously passed an ordinance requiring each head of household to own and maintain a gun. Since then, despite dire predictions of “Wild West” showdowns and increased violence and accidents, not a single resident has been involved in a fatal shooting – as a victim, attacker or defender.

The crime rate initially plummeted for several years after the passage of the ordinance, with the 2005 per capita crime rate actually significantly lower than it was in 1981, the year before passage of the law.

Utah students hide guns, head to class

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:42:24 GMT

clipped by: Newfman
clipper's remarks: To get a permit to carry a concealed weapon, people in Utah must, among other things:

# Be 21 years old

# Have no criminal record of violent, immoral or substance-related crime

# Be mentally competent.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

The senior at the University of Utah gets dressed and then decides which gun is easiest to conceal under his clothes.

If he's wearing a T-shirt, he'll take a smaller, low-profile gun to class. If he's wearing a coat, he may carry a different weapon, he said.

He started carrying a gun to class after the massacre at Virginia Tech, but the student says he's not part of the problem of campus shootings and could instead be part of a solution.

Nick says his gun doesn't make him feel immune from attack. "But I feel that I will be able to protect myself, and I'm confident in my training and my ability," he said.

His confidence is not shared by fellow student Griselda Espinoza, who recently transferred to the university

"The only people that should carry guns are trained officials."

Pedophiles have less brain white matter: Toronto study

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:41:30 GMT

clipped by: Newfman
clipper's remarks: If true, does this raise the possibility of an effective organic treatment?

Clip Source: www.cbc.ca

Pedophiles have significantly different brains than people without the condition, indicates new research, suggesting pedophilia may have physical causes.

Pedophiles have considerably less brain white matter than people not sexually attracted to children, says the research released Wednesday from the Toronto-based Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

White matter, found in both the parietal and temporal lobes of the brain, contains nerve fibres.

Researchers used MRIs to scan the brains of 127 sexual and non-sexual offenders. The sexual offenders were recruited from the Kurt Freund Laboratory of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

They discovered that in the brains of men who were sexually attracted to children, the frontal parts that govern a person's reponses to sexual stimuli had less white matter.

The researchers theorize pedophilia is the result of a "partial disconnection within that network.

Tags: crime

Bad News Bear...Teacher Faces 40 Lashes for Naming Class Teddy Bear 'Muhammad'

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 20:05:23 GMT

clipped by: Newfman

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

A British primary school teacher arrested in Sudan faces up to 40 lashes for blasphemy after letting her class of 7-year-olds name a teddy bear Muhammad.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was arrested at at Khartoum's Unity High School yesterday, and accused of insulting the Prophet of Islam.

Her colleagues said that they feared for her safety after reports that groups of young men had gathered outside the Khartoum police station where she was taken and were shouting death threats.

Teachers at the school, in central Khartoum, a mile from the Nile River, said that Gibbons had made an innocent mistake by letting her pupils choose their favorite name for the toy as part of a school project.

“This is a very sensitive issue. We are very worried about her safety,” he said. “This was a completely innocent mistake. Ms. Gibbons would have never wanted to insult Islam.”

Under Sudan's Sharia law, blasphemy could attract a large fine, 40 lashes or a jail term of up to six months.

Tags: crime

Researchers: Detroit Nation's Most Dangerous City

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 23:47:13 GMT

clipped by: Newfman
clipper's remarks: Comments?

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

DETROIT — In another blow to the Motor City's tarnished image, Detroit pushed past St. Louis to become the nation's most dangerous city, according to a private research group's controversial analysis, released Sunday, of annual FBI crime statistics.

The study drew harsh criticism even before it came out. The American Society of Criminology launched a pre-emptive strike Friday, issuing a statement attacking it as "an irresponsible misuse" of crime data.

The 14th annual "City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America" was published by CQ Press, a unit of Congressional Quarterly Inc. It is based on the FBI's Sept. 24 crime statistics report.

The report looked at 378 cities with at least 75,000 people based on per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. Each crime category was considered separately and weighted based on its seriousness, CQ Press said.

Tags: society

It's not easy bein' green..............

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:11:35 GMT

clipped by: Newfman

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Missouri police made a peculiar drug bust this week when they caught a man with a toad he allegedly used to get high, KMBC-TV in Kansas City reported Tuesday.

David Theiss, 21, of Kansas City, was accused of having a Colorado River Toad for the purpose of using it as a hallucinogenic, KMBC-TV reported.

"People used to do it all the time, but it got faded out awhile, but came back as a fad. Not a smart one," animal expert Danny Snyder told KMBC-TV. "The toxins in it can kill a lot of stuff."

Both Theiss and the toad were taken into custody. While Theiss was released on bond, the toad remains detained at a police crime lab.

Tags: odd

That's despicable....drugs found in chocolate ducks

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 12:30:55 GMT

clipped by: Newfman

Clip Source: www.wsbtv.com

ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. -- Rockdale County deputies have made an unusual bust -- drugs in candy ducks!

Officials arrested Matthew Jackson, 20, of Covington for allegedly selling LSD and other hallucinogens baked into duck-shaped chocolate candy.

Authorities said the chocolate ducks were wrapped in silver and gold foil. Officials said a crushed sample of the chocolate revealed a large amount of a mushroom-like material mixed into the chocolate.

Officials with the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Department said they had never seen anything like it.

A search of Jackson’s vehicle revealed 74 more ducks in a cooler bag, officials said.

He remains in jail while awaiting a bond hearing. He is charged with the sale of LSD; sale of psilocin, the active ingredient in psilocybin mushrooms; and possession with intent to distribute psilocin.

Tags: crime

Mafia's 'Ten Commandments' found

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 23:09:44 GMT

clipped by: Newfman

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Italian police have found what they say is a "Ten Commandments"-style code of behaviour for Mafia members, at the hideout of a captured Mafia boss.

Prohibitions include frequenting bars and looking at friends' wives, while members are urged to treat their own wives with respect.

The list was found during the arrest of Salvatore Lo Piccolo, the reputed new boss of the Sicilian Mafia.

It is thought to have been drawn up as a "guide to being a good mobster".

Other activites apparently beyond the pale for Mafiosi are being friends with the police, being late for appointments and "appropriating money if it belongs to other Mafia members or to other families".

The document makes clear that people with police or informers in their family cannot become members of the Mob.

And although mobsters' wives must be respected, they should not expect much support during childbirth: the rules state that "always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty - even if your wife's about to give birth".

Tags: crime

In lieu of jail, some offenders must carry signs, wear chicken suits

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:55:18 GMT

clipped by: Newfman

Clip Source: www.cbc.ca

PALATKA, Fla. - Reshane Lewis wasn't happy, sweat dripping from her face as she paraded outside the courthouse here carrying a sign reading: "I stole from a local store."

The sun beat down. For two hours, Lewis carried the red and white sign back and forth, her probation officer watching. Passersby and court employees mostly ignored her.

"It is better than going to jail, but it's not fair," said Lewis, who says she was arrested in a Wal-Mart last December for being the lookout while a friend took children's clothes.

Putnam County Judge Peter Miller has sentenced Lewis and more than 600 other people to carry signs at the courthouse or outside victimized stores over the past dozen years, part of his standard punishment for shoplifting.

He is one of several judges around the country who believe unusual sentences, usually some form of public penitence, work. The company that administers Putnam County's probation system says that only three of Miller's sign carriers have repeated their offence.

Tags: crime

Illegal numbers

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 02:29:42 GMT

clipped by: Newfman

Clip Source: tomeklof.googlepages.com

I'll bet you didn't know that numbers could be illegal. Take 92214563780560366130661709445338835634 for instance. Looks pretty innocent, doesn't it?

That's the decimal version of an AACS processing key, and it's illegal to publish that particular key in many countries (the US of A and possibly even Finland, for instance) since it enables you to decrypt any HD-DVD / Blu-ray disks you legally bought.

What if /dev/random (the standard random number generator on many UNIX-like operating systems) happened to spit that number out one day? Would you be guilty of a crime? What if some mathematical equation happened to yield that number as a solution? Let's say that for whatever reason you have the calculation 0xD116C89E071A6D82860B519264D65FBE1A2 / 0x3039 on a web page.

What is I just blatantly paste a number like 0x09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0 on the page? Does that make me a felon?

Tags: math

5 Of The Biggest Gangs

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 10:48:13 GMT

clipped by: Newfman
clipper's remarks: More info at site

Clip Source: www.alistoflists.com

Gangs and criminal organizations come into creation for a number of reasons or motives. Usually they revolve around money, and use fear, crime and extortion. They can be loosely controlled with no apparent structure, or they can be highly efficient with military like organization. In contrast to general media conception, gangs have been around for centuries in one shape or another, the Chinese Triads for example were started as a resistance to the Manchu Emperor of the Qing Dynasty in the 1760s. Here are just 5 of the biggest gangs and criminal groups in existence today.

The Crips

The Crips are a primarily, but not exclusively, African American gang founded in Los Angeles, California in 1969 by 15 year old Raymond Washington.

Hells Angels

The MS13 Gang

IRA

The Provisional IRA (Irish Republican Army) or PIRA, are commonly referred to as the IRA and have existed in one form or another since around 1916

Russian Mafia

Yakuza

Tags: crime

To Catch a Pedophile

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 15:13:24 GMT

clipped by: Newfman
clipper's remarks: Interpol sought public help Monday in identifying a suspected pedophile, revealing a technique to unscramble digitally altered images to show the face of a man seen in Internet photos sexually abusing young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

To Catch a Pedophile
Interpol unscrambles digitally altered images to show face of man seen sexually abusing boys online. | PHOTOS

Tags: crime

Man Faces 30-Year Prison Term for Stealing 52-Cent Doughnut

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 12:50:04 GMT

clipped by: Newfman

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

FARMINGTON, Mo. — A Park Hills man could potentially pay a hefty price to satisfy his sweet tooth.

Scott A. Masters, 41, has been charged with felony second-degree robbery after employees at a Country Mart in this town 70 miles south of St. Louis said he slipped a 52-cent doughnut into his sweat shirt without paying last December, then pushed away a clerk who tried to stop him as he fled the store.

The push is being treated as minor assault, which transforms a misdemeanor shoplifting charge to a strong-armed robbery with a potential prison term of five to 15 years. Given Masters' criminal past, prosecutors could boost that sentence to 30 years to life.

County Prosecutor Wendy Wexler Horn said it was "way too early to know how it is going to play out," but that the charge seemed appropriate given the store employees' allegations. She acknowledged some are questioning the seriousness of the charge.

"People are missing the point," Horn said. "It is not about the doughnut."

Tags: crime

O.J. takes a licking but keeps on ticking....with fake Rolex

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 11:01:05 GMT

clipped by: Newfman

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — O.J. Simpson is getting his fake Rolex watch back.

The timepiece, seized earlier this week by attorneys for Fred Goldman, was ordered returned to the former football star after it was determined to be a knockoff made in China.

Goldman has won a multimillion-dollar wrongful death judgment against Simpson, but the watch has so little value it falls under an exemption in the judgment excluding jewelry worth less than $6,075.

Goldman lawyer David Cook said his client will comply with Friday's order by Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg.

Cook had hoped the watch might be worth as much as $22,000, but an appraisal from San Francisco jeweler Shreve & Co. concluded it was worth only about $100. Simpson had told his lawyer, Ronald Slates, he paid $125 for it.

Tags: crime

Smokin' on down the highway.........

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 10:58:46 GMT

clipped by: Newfman

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

CONCORD, N.H. — A Concord man has been charged with growing marijuana up and down Interstate 89.

Police suspected Frank Drake, 37, had numerous pot gardens along the side of highway, so they dropped some undercover troopers off early Wednesday when they got a tip that he would be tending his crop.

Police say Drake was arrested around 1:40 a.m. Wednesday as he watered the plants. Troopers say he was carrying a .357 handgun at the time.

Investigators say they seized 44 high quality marijuana plants on the southbound side of the highway and 88 on the northbound side. Police estimated the street value at $132,000.

Tags: crime