FBI Operation Cross Country Rescues 105 Child Victims
From AOL News/Huffington Post:
The FBI has rescued 105 child sex-trafficking victims, FBI Assistant Director Ronald Hosko announced Monday.
The youngest of the rescued children was 9 years old, according to Reuters.
One underage victim told officials she became involved with prostitution when she was 11, according to CNN.
“Many times the children that are taken in in these types of criminal activities are children that are disaffected, they are from broken homes, they may be on the street themselves,” FBI Acting Executive Assistant Director Kevin Perkins said, according to the network. “They are really looking for a meal, they are looking for shelter, they are looking for someone to take care of them.”
Another victim, identified as “Alex,” told interviewers she became a prostitute at the age of 16, when she felt she had no other options to feed and clothe herself.
“At first it was terrifying,” Alex told interviewers, “and then you just kind of become numb to it. You put on a whole different attitude—like a different person. It wasn’t me. I know that. Nothing about it was me.”
The raids also resulted in the arrests of 150 “pimps” and other individuals, according to an FBI press release.
The rescues were the product of Operation Cross Country, a three-day nationwide initiative to aid victims of underage prostitution.
Operation Cross Country is a part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative, a joint program by the FBI, the Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children created to fight child sex trafficking in the United States.
Since 2003, the Innocence Lost National Initiative has netted the rescue of more than 2,700 children.
Flashing Lights to Warn of Speed Trap: Free Speech?
I’ve done it – warned other drivers of a speed trap ahead. And I have benefited from other drivers warning me. And I am fully aware that for a law and order kind of girl, that is contradictory behavior. So the question is . . . are we allowed?
From AOL Auto News:
When Michael Elli of Missouri flashed his headlights to warn other drivers of an upcoming speed trap in Ellisville Mo. he didn’t think he was doing anything illegal.
After he received a ticket for obstruction of justice, which carried a $1,000 fine, he fought back, saying the warning was protected free speech. Eventually prosecutors in Missouri dropped the charges, but now Elli and the American
“Those who use their First Amendment rights to warn others to drive cautiously should not be punished for their message,” said Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU-EM. “After all, the purpose of traffic laws is to promote safety, not generate revenue.”
Is flashing your headlights protected free speech? It depends on where in the U.S. you are. Florida, Utah and Tennessee, Ohio, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have all deemed that warning other drivers with a flicker of your high beams is protected by the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Alaska and Arizona have laws strictly forbid headlight flashing in any situation.
Rape Victim Spends Seven Months in Jail, Framed by her Rapist
This is from the New York Times City Blog:
Man Is Sentenced for Raping Ex-Girlfriend and Then Framing Her
By DAN BILEFSKY
Updated 5:42 p.m. | The Queens private detective who raped his ex-girlfriend and then framed her for a series of fictional crimeswas sentenced to the maximum of 32 years in prison on Wednesday, bringing to a close one of the most bizarre cases to grace a courtroom.
Using knowledge he acquired partly from watching crime dramas like “C.S.I.,” the private detective, Jerry Ramrattan, 39, orchestrated what prosecutors in Queens called one of the most elaborate frame-ups in recent history.
Mr. Ramrattan’s ex-girlfriend, Seemona Sumasar, 36, had accused him of raping her. After she refused to drop the rape charges, he concocted a schemethat landed her in jail for seven months, making it seem as though Ms. Sumasar was the likely perpetrator of a series of brazen armed robberies, for which she was accused of impersonating a police officer.
At his trial in State Supreme Court in Queens, prosecutors produced evidence that Mr. Ramrattan cajoled and extorted witnesses to falsely testify that she had robbed them. He even staged fake crime scenes, prosecutors said, in which he planted evidence, handcuffing one of Ms. Sumasar’s supposed victims to a pole and planting several bullets at the scene of one of the imaginary crimes.
Before Mr. Ramrattan was sentenced on Wednesday, Ms. Sumasar delivered a stinging victim impact statement, noting that he showed no remorse and was so intent on revenge that he would have stopped at nothing to destroy her. “I don’t have words for you,” she said as as he stared ahead, stone-faced, while she spoke. “You are pure evil. You are a sociopath. You need help.”
“Someone needs to put a stop to your madness,” she added.
During her seven months in jail, awaiting a robbery trial, Ms. Sumasar, a former Morgan Stanley analyst, was separated from her young daughter. She lost her business, and her house went into foreclosure. Her bail was set at $1 million, which she could not afford. Mr. Ramrattan, meanwhile, was free until an informant came forward in late 2010 and exposed his plot.
Mr. Ramrattan was convicted in November of a series of charges, including rape, conspiracy and perjury. The nearly monthlong trial offered two opposing plot lines that were seemingly irreconcilable. Prosecutors portrayed Ms. Sumasar as a single mother duped by a wily confidence man intent on malicious vengeance. But the defense characterized her as a dejected lover who had turned on Mr. Ramrattan after he said he was leaving her to return to his wife and family.
Members of the jury said the guilty verdict was predicated on their acceptance of Ms. Sumasar’s account of being bound with duct tape and viciously raped by Mr. Ramrattan, which apparently gave him a motive to create his ruse.
In his plea for leniency, Mr. Ramrattan insisted that he was innocent, saying that he had spent years helping the police solve cases as an informant. “I stand before you with no choice but to accept what is going to happen,” he said. “Think about all the cases I made over the years, the rape victims I assisted. I maintain my innocence.”
Before he was escorted away by police, he added: “There is more to come.” As he spoke, his mother, Shirley Ramrattan, began wailing and was escorted from the courtroom.
His lawyer, Frank Kelly, told the judge that Mr. Ramrattan was not the “monster” he had been made out to be.
But Justice Richard Buchter said Mr. Ramrattan deserved no mercy, calling him a “diabolical conniver and sinister manipulator” who had “shamelessly exploited the criminal justice system.”
The Queens district attorney’s office and the Nassau County district attorney’s office had insisted on Ms. Sumasar’s guilt up until she was freed just weeks before her own robbery trial was set to begin. Ms. Sumasar filed a civil suit in December against the New York City Police Department and the Nassau County Police Department for negligence leading to her wrongful imprisonment..
Justice Buchter railed against the Nassau County police, who had wrongly imprisoned Ms. Sumasar, saying that it did not take “a Sherlock Holmes” to deduce that a 5-foot-2 former Wall Street analyst with no criminal record would not have held people up at gunpoint.
He chastised the police for their egregious handling of the case, saying detectives had “turned a blind eye” to Ms. Sumasar’s protestations that she was innocent and had too easily been taken in by Mr. Ramrattan.
“The police were duped by liars by whom they had a right to be suspicious, and as a result a rape victim was framed by her rapist,” the judge said. “She was victimized by the rapist and then again by the criminal justice system.”
He added: “The defendant is the architect of his own ruin. He deserves no mercy from me, and he won’t get any.”
Florida Man Shot in Case of Mistaken Identity
U.S. News
Suspect denied bond in I-4 shooting death in Florida
-
Published: July 2, 2013 at 9:32 PM
TAMPA, Fla., July 2 (UPI) — The suspect in the Interstate 4 shooting death in Florida was denied bail Tuesday and authorities now say it’s a case of mistaken identity, not road rage.
Jerome Edward Hayes will have another bail hearing next week, WFTS-TV, Tampa, reported.
Hayes is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Fred Turner, 47, Saturday. He turned himself in Monday.
His attorney described Hayes as a “soft-spoken, nice guy.”
“You take a look at him, you talk to him, he does not seem like the kind of person that could possibly commit this kind of crime,” Nick Matassini Jr. said.
The TV station said police have obtained the gun and car involved in the shooting. Investigators say Turner was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“The victim was mistaken for an individual who was involved in an altercation with the suspect’s friend inside the Gold Club,” Col. Donna Lusczynski said.
Hayes and a friend allegedly were in a fight at the strip club and waited outside for their opponent. But they mistakenly followed the wrong person, who had been in an adjacent business.
“Mr. Turner was followed from the location by the suspect to the interstate, where he was shot several times,” Lusczynski said.
Turner was on the phone with a 911 operator, telling the dispatcher he was being followed and had not done anything to precipitate a confrontation when he was shot, she said.
Police Know Where We Are and Where We Go
This is not good news for people who don’t want other people knowing where they have been. I don’t see how it’s any different from cameras in big cities that are used by the police to see what cars went through at a time of a crime, for example. If you don’t have anything to hide, is this invasive? Where property crimes are increasing, where there is an increase in violent crime or assaults, these re tools to keep the majority of the population safer from the predators – in my opinion. Can you change my mind?
From AOL Auto News:
Police License Plate Scanners Record Driver’s Locations
Unregulated cameras store information indefinitely
Government surveillance isn’t just in our phone records and search engine history, but on our roads as well.
That’s what the Center For Investigative Reporting found when researching the small cameras popping up on police cars across the country known as license plate scanners. License plate scanners allow police officers to quickly scan thousands of license plates a day, looking for runaway criminals or stolen cars. In California there are very few limits on these readers and almost no transparency. These cameras record time and place of your vehicle, and even can store a picture record of your whereabouts.
Michael Katz-Lacabe, a security consultant, requested the records from the San Leandro, Calif., police department of every time his car was scanned. He was amazed at the frightening amount of information police had recorded. His two cars were scanned 112 times since 2009, and average of about twice a week. There was even a picture of him and his two daughters getting out of his Toyota Prius in their driveway.
The Center For Investigative Reporting points out that the use of license plate scanners has been growing quickly and quietly across the country. Read their fascinating story here to learn more.
Why Did He Choose Me?
I do admit I admire the creativity of the people who send these out. This one isn’t at all creative, very straight forward, but neither is there a hook, unless, oh yeah, free money. Do the words “too-good-go-be-true” ring a bell?
Grammar, sentence structure and phrasing: Sparse, but not bad
Content: Weak. Bank of France – in what country? Why transfer out these funds? Why did you choose me?
Appeal: None
Please reply me with this email: c_noyer@yahoo.fr Hello Friend, I need your assistance in transferring a deceased client fund worth of $18,500,000.00 Million US Dollars out of my Bank here in French central bank (Banque de France). If interested, kindly respond back to me immediately for further details on my proposed transaction. Kind Regards, Mr. Christian Noyer Governor, French central bank (Banque de France) Once again please reply me with this email: c_noyer@yahoo.fr
More on Pensacola Beach Shooting
Written by
Rhema Thompson
- A Pensacola man accused of shooting a man to death early Tuesday at Casino Beach may face a first-degree murder charge in a case that is raising more questions as new details emerge.
Damarcus Rayon Jenkins, 20, made a video appearance before Escambia County Judge Thomas Johnson on Wednesday afternoon in the shooting death of Michael Harris, 34, of Milton.
Jenkins is accused of shooting Harris multiple times after approaching Harris and his girlfriend, who had been arguing on the beach.
He was arrested on a second-degree murder charge and is being held without bond. But prosecutors will ask a grand jury to upgrade the charge to first-degree murder in the next few weeks, Assistant State Attorney John Molchan said.
Questions linger about what triggered the deadly encounter.
There is no indication that Harris and Jenkins knew each other, investigators said.
“That makes us very concerned and that’s what we are continuing to investigate,” Molchan said. “The nature of the shooting still presents a lot of questions.”
Escambia County sheriff’s deputies arrived at Casino Beach at about 3:45 a.m. Tuesday in response to a call of shots fired and found Harris lying in the sand with several gunshot wounds, including one to his sternum, according to a Sheriff’s Office report.
He was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders just after 4 a.m.
According to several witnesses, Harris had been out on the beach with a group of friends that night to celebrate a friend’s 30th birthday.
The group separated after Harris, his girlfriend and two other friends got into an argument, according to the report.
After the argument, Harris and another female friend became angry and walked away from the group.
The remaining two friends — a male friend and Harris’ girlfriend — got into a van and drove over the Bob Sikes Bridge before receiving a call from Harris to be picked up, according to the report.
After arriving back at the beach, Harris’ girlfriend got out of the van to meet Harris while Harris’ male friend drove to a different location to pick up his girlfriend, according to the report.
As Harris sat with his girlfriend on the beach, several witnesses said a group of males and females — who appeared in their teens and early 20s — approached the two and multiple gunshots were fired.
The suspected shooter was later identified by several witnesses as Jenkins, Molchan said.
Following the gunshots, the group ran from the beach and into the parking lot where they sped off in black Nissan Altima, a white vehicle and an orange vehicle, according to the report.
Later, officers arrived at a residence in the 4500 block of Landes Drive seeking Jenkins for questioning.
As they talked with a person who answered the door, they noticed Jenkins attempting to flee the home through a side door, the report states.
A deputy caught Jenkins, searched him and found a set of keys to an orange Kia Rio parked in the front yard, which matched one of the vehicles at the scene of the homicide.
Deputies also obtained a search warrant for the residence but found no evidence.
Jenkins was taken into custody and his vehicle was brought to the Sheriff’s Office for processing.
Molchan said there are still others being sought for questioning, but additional charges are not likely.
Jenkins’ next court appearance is scheduled for July 10.
“We’re Moving On . . . ” at Pensacola Beach
Night before last, night a man was shot at the beach at 3:45 in the morning. According to the (very sketchy) details in the Pensacola News Journal, he had been having a fight with his girlfriend, had finished his fight and was then shot three times by a man he doesn’t know and who has no relationship to him. (This is what I understand from reading the paper; it doesn’t make sense to me, but it also says alcohol was involved.)
I only knew about the shooting because I saw a tiny little article about it on the AOL Local news section. When I went to look at it, it was gone.
In this morning’s paper, there is this sketchy description, and then – in several different sections – local are people quoted as saying “we’re moving on.”
OK I get it. We’re a beach community, and this is peak tourist season as folks pour in here from all the Southern states and other countries to enjoy our fabulous sugar-white sand beaches.
Before the tourists had hit the beach, the crime scene tape was down and a beach excavator had carted off the bloody sand.
I do get it. I really do. The season is short and we don’t want to be known as a beautiful beach where people can get shot. It’s a marketing problem.
There is something, however, that sticks in my craw about the swiftness of the moving on, and the barely there press coverage. A man was killed. Maybe he had been drinking. Maybe he had a fight with his girlfriend. Maybe he was at the beach very late (or very early) in the morning. None of these things seem to have anything to do with him having been shot, other than maybe being in the wrong place at the wrong time and the wrong person had a gun and shot him. It seems a little disrespectful, to me, to move on quite so swiftly. A man lost his life. We don’t know why. Maybe we could just take a little time to figure out what happened and to acknowledge his loss?
Three Little Kittens
This morning, driving to the commissary, about ten feet apart on the highway, I saw the smooshed bodies of three little kittens. They must have been about five or six weeks old. I felt sick; I still do. What kind of animal would throw little kittens out the window of a car to let them die in terror on a busy highway? Who raises these people who could act with such cruelty?
I am a believer; I believe God put each one of us here for a purpose. I think we often misunderstand some of God’s intentions; I think sometimes we get it very wrong. I fantasize that maybe these little cats and dogs we adopt are really our guardian angels, who will speak up for us on the last days and tell the Lord Jesus how we treated his little ones. Imagine the punishment for hurting a helpless animal! Imagine the penalty for hurting an innocent, defenseless child!
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