Camden officer admits role in rogue cop operation

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/88714622.html

A former Camden police officer pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge yesterday, admitting his role in a rogue operation that authorities say has led to charges being overturned or dismissed in 185 drug cases.

Dozens of defendants, most low-level drug dealers or users, have been released from prison as a result. Several, interviewed in recent weeks, said they were not told why their convictions had been vacated.

All of those interviewed claimed they had been falsely accused and, in some cases, assaulted by officers now believed to be targets of a widening corruption probe.

Federal authorities declined to comment about the ongoing investigation, but in a statement released from his office after yesterday’s hearing, Paul J. Fishman, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said, “The actions described in today’s guilty plea are reprehensible.”

Former Camden Officer Kevin Parry, 29, entered the plea during a hearing in U.S. District Court, admitting he and officers he worked with routinely stole drugs and money after conducting illegal searches and making illegal arrests. He said they stored the drugs in various locations for use in their rogue operation.

Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson described Parry as part of a “very small group of criminals with badges.”

Sources said the investigation began within the Camden Police Department in the summer of 2008, shortly after Thomson assumed the top spot. It was then turned over to the FBI.

During yesterday’s hearing, Parry, who joined the 345-member department in October 2006, said he and four other officers planted drugs in dozens of cases, traded drugs for information from prostitutes, and threatened to arrest those not willing to cooperate.

Parry told Judge Robert B. Kugler that from May 2007 to October 2009, he took part in between 50 and 70 incidents in which he and others acted illegally.

He said he and the other officers then routinely filed false police reports and lied while testifying in court to conceal their actions.

Parry’s plea has taken the lid off an ongoing federal corruption investigation that surfaced late last year when Parry and two other officers were suspended without pay.

Parry, who faces up to 10 years in prison, was released on $100,000 bail. He also gave up his right to be an officer or hold public office.

“You’ve done the right thing,” Kugler told Parry, emphasizing the seriousness of the charges and the impact on the community. “This is the right step.”

Parry, who fatally shot a suspect authorities said pointed a gun at him in March 2007, filed for disability retirement in November, the week he was suspended. The disability claim stemmed from an injury Parry said he suffered during the shooting incident.

Just hours after Parry’s court appearance, the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office disclosed that during the last four months, it had moved to vacate convictions or dismiss charges in 185 cases tied to Parry and other officers who have been targeted in the probe.

Authorities released the names following a request by The Inquirer under the Open Public Records Act, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

For weeks, Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk has refused to discuss the corruption investigation and would not disclose how many cases his office had moved to vacate. He also declined to provide the names of the defendants impacted.

Yesterday, he provided the names of 171 defendants whose cases were vacated.

Faulk said his office reviewed more than 400 cases from the last five years in which any of the five officers was the primary investigator or arresting officer.

“The simple fact is that the questions raised about these officers’ conduct left us with no confidence in the evidence supporting the charges,” Faulk said.

This xenophobia is on the rise all across Europe and the world (remember the anti-immigrant riots in South Africa not too long ago) as a result of the decline of capitalism and its profits.  As people search for someone to blame for their problems they grasp onto other victims of capitalism, instead of pointing the finger where it should be pointed:  at their own ruling class.  This has lead to viscious attacks but it is only the beginning.  If capitalism doesn’t stabilize it will get much worse. 

Italy targets illegal immigrants

Modern-day fascists in Italy oppose all "non-Italians" living in their country. The decline of capitalism causes this xenophobia to rear its ugly head.

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/07/2009767145577693.html

A restaurant called White sits on a small side street in the centre of Rome. 

While people on the ground floor order their pastas and salad, a meeting is being held upstairs. 

Amid shouts of “victory” and straight-armed salutes, the Movimento Sociale Italiano party (MSI), which believes Italy would be a better country if it stopped immigration and cracked down on those who sneak in illegally, is celebrating the fact that new legislation passed by the Italian senate has met many of their wishes.

The law makes illegal immigration a crime punishable with a maximum fine of $14,000 and raises to six months the amount of time that illegal migrants can be detained in holding centres before being kicked out of the country.

Gaetano Saya, a MSI member, has been investigated by police for posting racist material on a website. He once said “immigration is the biggest threat to our race”. 

In charge of today’s gathering, as we sit in the cool of the café he tells me: “We think the immigrants are very dangerous. When we come to power we will stop all immigration and begin to send back those who arrived here after a certain date.

“We have a new phrase. These people are not immigrants, they are non-Italians and we don’t want any more non-Italians on Italian territory.”

Worry and fear

There may be as many as 600,000 illegal immigrants in Italy; they don’t exactly announce their presence. Many live unnoticed, unremarkable lives. 

But under the new legislation, Italians must turn them over to the authorities if they try to register their children for school, or look for medical treatment. 

Abdul says he fears Italians will feel they have to turn him in if he goes to hospital

Bari Abdul arrived in Rome three years ago from Guinea and lives on the streets. We met near a soup kitchen where hot meals are handed out to others like him. 

He doesn’t speak much but is very worried about the new law.

“I can’t even go to get treatment at hospital now – the Italians there will feel they have to turn me in,” he says, ignoring the fact that he is in the country illegally.

Esquilinho is a rough neighbourhood in central Rome that is home to many immigrants.

Alphousseyn Sonko was born here. He has Senegalese parents but an Italian passport. 

Sonko believes the new law will make life tougher for people like him: “This so-called security law is more about those with papers and how they live rather than how you stop those coming across the Mediterranean Sea.”

‘Really bad law’

Mario Marazziti works for the Sant Edidio charity which offers help to those who need it – wherever they come from. For many it provides the only hot meal of the day.

In the pretty courtyard, Italians and immigrants mingle, and for a few short minutes, their lives mesh, backgrounds forgotten, their needs exactly the same.  

Mario can barely disguise his contempt for politicians.

“The so-called security law that has been just passed by the Italian parliament is a really bad law. It’s a big signal to the population; it says immigrants are a potential risk, potential criminals. The crime this law is targeting is the crime of hope and the desire for a better life,” he says.

Immigrants and immigration are not on the agenda for this week’s G8 summit in Italy.

But a number of charities and aid agencies believe that with the financial crisis and the rise of support for right-wing parties across Europe, it is one factor that will influence many of the decisions that will be made here.

Surveillance Video Shows Feds Taser Metro Man in Mistaken ID Case

Wait for the commercial to end then the video will play… MUST SEE!!!!!!

http://www.fox4kc.com/news/wdaf-story-taser-mistake-marshals-041609,0,4275021.story

GRANDVIEW, MO – A metro man and father of four found himself caught up in a case of mistaken identity after he was yanked off a community center basketball court and tasered by U.S. Marshals.

Surveillance video released on Friday shows Stuart Wright, 30, was playing basketball at the Grandview Community Center when U.S. Marshals, acting on a tip from an informant, surrounded him with guns drawn and hit him with a Taser.

“I just heard all this commotion and screaming, and as I turned I heard this gentleman screaming and he had a gun pointed at me,” said Wright. “And as I put my hands up I guess he was screaming the gentleman’s name who they were after, and I said my name is Stuart Wright, that’s not my name and I heard pop,pop and I felt my body tense up, and I was on the ground.”

Officials with the U.S. Marshals Office says that an informant told them that their suspect was at the community center playing basketball, wearing a jersey with the number 23 on the back and with braids in his hair. That description fit Wright, who happened to be given that particular shirt for the game.

“I honestly think it was poor planning and strategy, and I think somebody didn’t do their homework,” said Wright. “I think they were out of control.”

Pip Dukes, who organizes the men’s basketball league, says he was working the scoreboard when the U.S. Marshals entered the gym, telling him to stop the game.

“Those guys just bum rushed the gentleman, and it was maybe 8 of them and they had their guns out and where they approached him at it was a stand behind him full of kids,” said Dukes. “I’m still disappointed because it was a stand full of kids.”

The U.S. Marshals Office admitted that entering a crowded community center with guns drawn was not an ideal situation, but they said that the man they were looking for was armed and dangerous.

Officials with the agency said that they thought Wright, who works for the Wyandotte County Unified Government, was going to hit a deputy who had grabbed his arm. They say that’s why he was tasered.

“It just humiliated me,” said Wright, who says he hopes law enforcement will learn from the incident before they act in the future. “I was so embarrassed, honestly.”

Ronald Reagan Was An FBI Informant

The “Big Gipper”?!  Nah, the Big Snitcher.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,142352,00.html?iid=digg_share

Ronald Reagan’s acting career hit a lull in the late 1940s. Despite parts in minor films such as The Voice of the Turtle and That Hagen Girl, he became increasingly preoccupied with his more important role during Hollywood’s “Red Scare” as head of the Screen Actors Guild. It was revealed last week that the future President played another role as well: as a secret FBI informant, code name T-10. According to an article published in the San Jose Mercury News, documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act indicate that Reagan and his first wife, Actress Jane Wyman, provided federal agents with the names of actors they believed were Communist sympathizers.

The FBI papers report that despite his work as an informant, Reagan disagreed with some of the tactics of organizations like the House Un- American Activities Committee. In one FBI interview, Reagan takes issue with a group of actors and producers attempting to fire any alleged Reds. Protests Reagan: “Do they expect us to constitute ourselves as a little FBI of our own and determine just who is a Commie and who isn’t?”