Interesting Stats from GATES Of INJUSTICE by: Alan Elsner

The following stats came from Alan Elsner's GATES OF INJUSTICE which is featured on the front page of this website.


· There are currently more Americans behind bars than the combined populations of metro Boston, San Francisco and Washington D.C.

· There are 100,000 minors under 18 in lock-ups.

· Of the 2 million behind bars in the U.S. ~600,000 are black men in their 20s and 30s which totals 40% of the jail population while that category makes up about 12% of the total population of the U.S.

· 1 in 3 Black men and 1 in 5 Hispanic males can expect to spend time in jail.

· In 1972 there were 326,000 Americans behind bars which means about 160 of every 10,000 people. In 2004 the number is 702 per 10,000.

· From 1980 until 2001 drug related arrests tripled to reach 1,587,000 or 4400 arrests per day or 1 every 20 seconds. 20% of these arrests are for selling and 80% are for possession.

· Cost of drug war in the 70s was about 110 million a year; in 2003 it was $19.2 billion.

· In N.Y. the cost to build each jail cell is $100,000 and it costs $30,000 a year to house an inmate. In 1985 NY had 12,500 prisoners, in 1995 they had 70,000.

· In a 1999 survey 75% of inmates admitted to drug/alcohol abuse while only 15% of inmates ever receive treatment.

· In 2000, BJS estimated that 16% of inmates in state facilities are mentally ill for a total of 191,000 inmates. If you include federal, state and local lock ups this number goes to around 300,000.

· In 2002 there were over 183,000 women in prison and lock up.

· 1 of every 14 Black children has at least 1 parent in jail while 1.5 million children have a parent or close family member in jail. ½ of all juveniles in jail have a parent in jail too.

· In 2000, nearly 70% of inmates released return to jail within 3 years of release.

· Prisons employ more people in the U.S. than General Motors, Ford Motors and Wal-Mart combined.

When You Plow New Ground, Sometimes You Encounter Rocks and Stumps--

Note From Steve: Below is an article from my local hometown newspaper. Let me assure readers that police response is NOT 20 to 30 minutes. This particular sub-station, as were a couple of others around our city, was consolidated into larger quarters about a mile from the old one. This is a wonderful example of a collaborative effort to serve children and others in our community. North Little Rock competes for every single one of our children. We are blessed with a very progressive Mayor and City Council, coupled with a great group of city employees and residents. Why... in the implementation of this particular program, a church from south of the river in Little Rock has joined with us! Remember my motto: TO BEAT GANGS, WE MUST COMPETE WITH GANGS.


The NLR Times
Thursday, April 21, 2005

Some praise community center, while others worry

Though activities are welcomed, absence of police has some worried about crime on Washington Avenue.

Many of the homes along the 2200 block of East Washington Avenue are boarded up, the others display signs that read “No trespassing.”

So the name of the event held last Saturday, the “New Beginning Celebration,” was significant of the hope presented by a new city project in the area.

Nearly 100 nearby residents, church leaders and city officials gathered at the old police substation at 2216 East Washington Ave., where Mayor Pat Hays, Ward 2 Alderman Linda Robinson and others officially launched an expansion of the building now dubbed the East Washington Community Center.

But while many residents praised the center, in the days after the event others were raising concerns about whether this safe haven can survive with the police pulling out entirely.

On Saturday, neighbors and members of Park Hill Baptist Church said they came by to lend a hand to the nine-year-old center’s volunteer activities director Ray Smith and New Harvest Ministries director Pastor Sam Harris.

The duo is providing a safe learning environment for the neighborhood’s kids, said Margaret Powell, the city’s director of community relations.

“[It’s] something that many of these children don’t find at home,” Smith said.

The plan now is to refurbish the basketball court and playground outside, as well as refit the portion of the building that had been the old police quarters to allow the whole inside to be used as a community center.

That way, by summer, the place will be able to offer even more kids a place to grab a sandwich or hang out, playing basketball or watching approved videos while parents are at work, Harris said.

The center has also announced a work-related apprentice program for young people, and more tutoring this fall, Smith said.

But worries abound in this seeming paradise, and not just the sort of worries that Harris, who lives 10 blocks away and has worked at the Firm Foundation Ministries homeless shelter nearby, maintains this center is trying to tackle.

“Most people down here don’t have three meals a day; when I was growing up, we were doing good if we had one,” he said. “It’s a poverty-stricken area with a lot of drug addiction, gangs, single parents that don’t have the funds of a two-parent family.”

Alderman Robinson says she was on board with the Police Department’s decision to completely move out of the building, but her counterpart, Ward 2 Alderman Olen Thomas, who has represented the area for more than 20 years, says he has big issues with it.

“I was disgusted to find out that the police had pulled out of the substation,” he said Monday night.

“Only a few days ago a kid got shot south of the substation and crossed Washington Avenue before falling down,” Thomas offered as evidence to what he calls “an area where we need protection the most.”

Thomas says he hears complaints all the time—not about the center itself—but about the declining police presence in the East Washington area.

If someone calls, “the police show up 20 or 30 minutes later, if at all,” he said. “People are afraid.”

North Little Rock Police Chief Danny Bradley said the substation has been used “sporadically” but has seen “no significant use” in last two years. Instead, officers are using the Rose City substation approximately 10 to 15 blocks away.

“You can’t organizationally stay together and operate out of too many locations,” he said. “It was put to better use” by the community as a youth center:

Capt. Mike Davis, who heads up the city’s patrol division, acknowledges that the area around the center is “a high-crime area.”

But he says his sense is that the instigators are basically “small groups of kids with nothing to do and they get bored.” So he thinks letting the community center take over the whole building is a good idea.

“I think [Ray Smith] has got a good plan, and we’ve pledged that we [the Police Athletic League of volunteer cops who work with kids after hours] want to be involved,” said Davis. “It’s a win-win situation for us and for them.”

Not so for Randall Bradley, a nearby resident who agrees with Thomas. Right now the neighborhood’s elderly women, like his mother, are being made prisoners in their own homes, while outsiders—allegedly drug dealers from out of the area—are holding the streets hostage, he said.

Jerry McAway, who has lived in the area for 32 years, said he can sit on his front porch and watch the drug deals go down. The dealers use walkie-talkies so they can be alerted when the police are on their way, he said. He’s too old to start over in a new neighborhood, he said, so for now, instead of the police, he depends on his own guns for protection.

“The only way they’re going to get rid of me is to carry me out,” he said.

Sgt. Terry Kuykendall, the police department’s spokesman, said the drug problem in not only around East Washington.

“I don’t think the drug problem in that area is significantly different from other areas of the city,” Kuykendall said. “Drugs are a problem everywhere; there are no boundaries.”

But Thomas said he and a few neighborhood residents plan to voice their concerns at the North Little Rock City Council meeting Monday night.

Told of Thomas’ plan, Robinson agreed that the area needs more police presence.

“I’m well aware that drugs are a problem because I’ve driven through there at night and noticed a lot of traffic and people standing on the street,” she said.

She has even fielded some complaints from residents, she said, and left messages about the problem with Davis’ administrative assistant. But that doesn’t change her mind about expanding the center.

“I support it 100 percent,” she said.

For his part, Harris said Davis is right: It’s not so much gangs plaguing the area as small groups of black teenagers forming alliances.

“They form cliques over a five- or a six-block area and there’s trouble if someone infringes on a group’s territory. When you grow up in that type of environment, that’s what is normal. That’s what we’re up against,” he said.

So his hope is that by supporting these teenagers and trying to fill in some gaps, they won’t want to turn to drugs or gangs.

For 15-year-old Demerus Williams and 16-year-old Brandon Rogers, the center, with its ball games and computers, offers an alternative.

“There’s always stuff to do there when there’s nothing to do at home,” Williams said.

On the Lighter Side

Here is a great blog written by a dog. A dogblog so to speak. Anyway, it's funny as can be.

www.MollyLynch.blogspot.com

Reports from Afghanistan--

http://www.northlittlerock.ar.gov/city-attorney/default.asp

My good friend and a great friend to the youth of our community, Paul Suskie, who is the city attorney in North Little Rock, and the past president and founder of our local Police Athletic League, which serves over a 1000 kids a year, is also a Major in the US Army JAG corps. He is in Afghanistan and has been sending home some very wonderful reports from the front on Operation Enduring Freedom. You can visit them by going to the above link, or by going to www.NorthLittleRock.Ar.gov and click on his reports on the front page.

Safe Passages to You,

Steve

Shooting in Little Rock- Ar. Democrat-Gazette

Man, 25, killed in drive-by shooting
Attacker in sedan leaned out window, fired on victim at gas pump

BY MICHAEL FRAZIER ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Gawking crowds lined the corners of a busy Little Rock intersection Wednesday afternoon, near where armed attackers killed a man in a drive-by shooting.

The 1:50 p.m. shooting occurred at the Express Mart service station at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Roosevelt Road, just east of the State Fairgrounds. Officers found Julian Christopher Branch, 25, of Little Rock on the ground near his blue Buick sedan with several gunshot wounds, police said.

Branch died a short time later at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center in Little Rock. His death is the seventh homicide in Little Rock this year.

"It was just like a war," recalled Odies Kitchen, 79, who said he witnessed the attack unfold but couldn’t identify the shooter. "One guy leaned out the rear window [of a car] with a long gun and just started shooting like 20 times."

Before the attack, Branch drove his Buick to the service station, where he pulled up to pump No. 2 and stepped out of his car.

Moments later, a gray sedan pulled into the lot. As the sedan drove through, a man riding in the back seat leaned out of a window with a firearm and shot at Branch, police said.

After Branch collapsed in the lot, the sedan quickly turned around on King Drive, returned and the gunman fired at least two more rounds at Branch, said Sgt. Terry Hastings, a Little Rock police spokesman.

The sedan then sped away west on Roosevelt Road, according to the police report.

When the shooting began, Kitchen, a plumber, was on his way to a home in need of repairs.

"They shot him [Branch] and he fell," Kitchen said. "Then they shot him again."

Bobby Skaggs, 32, of Jacksonville said he chased the attackers after he spotted the shooting while driving west on Roosevelt Road in his work truck. After following the car a few blocks, Skaggs decided it was best for him to turn back and check on Branch.

"I was concentrating on the driver," he said. "If he pointed that gun at me, I was hitting the brakes."

Napoleon Talley, who didn’t see the attackers, said he was startled by gunfire as he worked at Target Package Store, a liquor store at 1500 W. Roosevelt Road near the service station.

"I heard the shooting," Talley said. "When I got to the window, I just saw a fella lying on the ground."

Shortly after the shooting, a Pulaski County sheriff’s deputy, who was driving nearby when he heard gunshots, arrived at the service station and called 911 after finding Branch.

The sheriff ’s office is less than two miles from the service station.

Arriving minutes later, Little Rock police Sgt. Allen Quattlebaum pointed at one of at least two bullet holes in the metal frame of gas pump No. 2. At least one dent, apparently made by a bullet, could also be seen on the driver-side door of Branch’s car.

"We’re not sure what we have," Quattlebaum said, adding that investigators didn’t have a motive at the time.

As the officers continued their investigation, a crying woman dressed in red ducked under the police tape, but was stopped by officers as she approached two bloodied shirts belonging to Branch.

"Would someone please tell me what’s going on? Someone please tell me," the unidentified woman said.
A police officer said later that the woman was related to Branch.

Crime scene investigators found at least a dozen shell casings scattered on the lot.

Not far from a fresh blood trail outside the service station, officers stood over a small black handgun that investigators believe belonged to one of the attackers, Hastings said.

According to the police report, officers also found more than $1,000 cash and a.380-caliber handgun on Branch before emergency crews placed him in an ambulance.

In the police report, witnesses described the getaway car as a gray late-model sedan that resembled an Oldsmobile Cutlass.

Investigators are looking for at least two male suspects, but no detailed descriptions of the assailants were available Wednesday afternoon.

Days before the shooting, Branch had been involved in a few arguments, with one escalating into a fistfight. But Quattlebaum said the quarrels and the fight were not related to Wednesday’s attack.

Information for this article was contributed by Daniel Nasaw of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

This story was published Thursday, April 14, 2005

Gangs In Florida- St. Pete Times

Suburbs gang sweep nets 66 arrests

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
Published April 13, 2005

BRANDON - Shootouts in subdivisions, drug sales in local parks, gang members shoplifting at convenience stores.
Not your idea of suburban tranquility?


Maybe not, but those are the scenes playing out in Tampa's suburbs, according to Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee, who is trying to crush a growing gang and drug problem. As part of ongoing sweeps by the Gang Task Force, Gee announced Tuesday the arrests of 66 people over two months - including 17 gang members and five associates - on charges ranging from murder to burglary to drug distribution.


Most of the crimes occurred where the majority of the defendants live, in the Heather Lakes and Plantation Key subdivision area near Brandon, Gee said, adding that these arrests won't be the last.


"This is not a sprint, this is going to be a marathon in this county," Gee said during a press conference held at Heather Lakes Park south of Lumsden Road.


The FBI has agreed to join efforts with the county's gang task force.


At the center of the recent arrests was a local, loosely knit gang called "The City Squad," plus several other groups operating in the area known as "The Untouchables," "Raw Dogs" and "FAM."


The task force conducted surveillance and undercover work to figure out the source of the area's problems - among them, a shootout in the subdivision, drug dealing, home and car burglaries and thefts at local gas stations. At the stores, the gang members would walk inside, stare down the clerk, pick up what they wanted and walk out, Gee said.


The Sheriff's Office has seized more than $42,000 in firearms, cash and drugs from the group, Gee said. Those arrested ranged from older juveniles to adults.


Gee said the problem won't be solved soon, especially if parents don't pay attention to their children.


"We need parental involvement in preventing kids from getting into gangs," he said.


In an earlier sweep in January, 42 people, most of them alleged members of rival gangs in eastern Hillsborough, were arrested on drug and firearms trafficking charges as part of a crackdown on illegal gangs.


The Sheriff's Office has held three town hall meetings this year on gang awareness. The next one will be at 6:30 p.m. April 27 at Leto High School.


Neighbors were thrilled Tuesday by news of the arrests.


Rita Small, vice president of the Heather Lakes Homeowners Association, said residents began working with the Sheriff's Office after enduring years of drug deals and gang-related beatings nearby.


"I think these kids want something to do and something to fit in with," Small said.


The association has partnered with the Sheriff's Office to hold more activities for children, including a picnic at the park on April 23.


"We've been at this park setting up for movie night and we've seen drug deals," said Ann Carey, an association member. "I've heard people say, "What have I moved here for?"'


Among the 66 people arrested was gang member Fernando Cuevas, 28, charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder. Cuevas was charged in February, accused of fatally shooting Carlos Hernandez Jr., 18, of Plant City, and Victor Lara, 18, of Bradenton. The two were in a car on Forbes Road on June 16, 2002, when they were shot several times.


Of the 65 others arrested in the sweep, 16 are identified as known gang members, including:


--Harry Ford, 26, charged with one count of possession of ammunition and one count of aggravated assault with a firearm.


--Francisco Avila, 19, charged with one count of attempted murder, accused of attacking a gang associate with a crowbar; robbery; grand theft; and criminal mischief.


--David Avila, 18, charged with possession of marijuana and Xanax.


--Daniel Perez, 20, charged with attempted murder connected to the Avila incident; robbery; grand theft and criminal mischief.


--Pedro Peguero, 28, charged with one count of attempted murder connected to the Avila incident.


--Kelvin Johnson, 15, charged with obstruction of justice; violation of probation on theft and trespass; burglary; assault and criminal mischief.


--Yohanse Lamont, 15, burglary, assault, criminal mischief.


--Kareem Duprey, 17, burglary, assault, criminal mischief.


--Michael Lynch, 17, burglary, assault, criminal mischief, obstruction of justice.


--Lakendrick Brady, 20, aggravated assault with a firearm; shooting into a building; criminal mischief.


--Jeremy Fears, 18, conspiracy to possess and deliver Ecstasy.


--Otto Barroso, 16, shooting into a building; aggravated assault with a firearm; criminal mischief.


--Michael Johnson, 17, aggravated assault with a firearm.


--Dempsey Collado, 17, aggravated assault with a firearm.


One man, who was not listed as a gang member, was arrested and accused of being a main supplier for the local drug dealers: Luis Delaespriella, 32, possession of meth and trafficking in Ecstasy.


© Copyright 2002-2005, St. Petersburg Times

3 Weeks Later- AP Story

April 12, 2005

3 Weeks After Shootings, Students Return

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RED LAKE, Minn., April 11 (AP) - Students returned to Red Lake High School on Monday for the first time since a teenage gunman killed five fellow students, a teacher, a security guard and himself there three weeks ago.

A healing ceremony was held outside the school, on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, before students and parents entered.

Inside, students cleared out their lockers, which are all in the newer section of the school, where the shootings occurred. That section will be closed for renovations, while high school classes are to resume on Tuesday in an older part of the school that had been scheduled to be demolished.

Students will also begin using a different school entrance, away from the main doors, which the gunman walked through.

Reporters were kept out of sight of the healing ceremony and were not allowed in the school.

On March 21, Jeff Weise, 16, shot his grandfather and his grandfather's companion, then went to the school and killed seven people there before shooting himself. The slain security guard was not armed.

An open house was held under tight security on Monday at the adjacent middle school. Across town, classes resumed at the elementary school.

Arleda Scott, 14, who was at the middle school on Monday, said that a few of her classmates were not ready to return. "Some of them are scared," she said.

Ms. Scott's mother, Michelle Johnson, said it was time for students to return to school. "This is a good place for students, for kids to be," said Ms. Johnson, who went back to the school with Arleda and another daughter, Anita Scott.

School officials said last week that tightened security would include locked classrooms while school was in session and patrols of hallways by officers of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Bloods and Drugs and Guns vs. Cops and Guns-- Guess who wins--

Suspect in drug ring arrested
Capture of wanted man leads to pistol, marijuana, $2,000
BY DANIEL NASAW ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Federal drug agents have arrested Broderick Chunn, the third man suspected of running a Little Rock drug ring.

Chunn, who’s been wanted since early March, was arrested by agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration about 1 p.m. Friday at a Little Rock apartment, according to a police official.

After he was taken without incident, agents seized a.44-caliber pistol, a quarter-pound of marijuana and about $2,000 cash, a police official familiar with the case said.

"He didn’t think he’d get caught," the official said.

This arrest comes after a two-year investigation into the activities of Chunn, 23, and his suspected associates Keon Neeley, 28, and Robert Brevard III, 30. The men stand accused in U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Arkansas of knowingly possessing cocaine and crack cocaine with intent to distribute.

Police suspect that Neeley and Brevard ran drug operations for two violent Little Rock street gangs, the West Side Pirus and the Oak Street Posse, respectively.

"They’re some bad dudes," said an undercover Little Rock police official. "They’ll hurt anyone else that’s going to mess up their operation."

Court records show that Little Rock narcotics detectives and DEA agents were able to infiltrate Neeley, Brevard and Chunn’s outfit, buying drugs, watching them, even listening on a phone call as Chunn and Neeley reportedly plotted to kill a federal agent they had discovered watching their operations.

The most recent phase of the investigation began in June with Neeley’s arrest. Soon after, a Little Rock narcotics detective was able to gain Chunn’s trust, buying a total of 4 ounces of crack cocaine and 10 Ecstasy pills over 1 2 /2 months. The detective paid Chunn a total of $3,500 for the drugs, court records state.

On the afternoon of Dec. 18, detectives found Chunn outside a Motel 6 off West Markham in Little Rock and followed him as he drove off in a green Cadillac.

Chunn fled when police tried to pull him over. After a 15-minute chase, Chunn jumped from the still-moving Cadillac and ran. Police found him about five minutes later behind 1600 S. Elm St. They reportedly found crack cocaine in the Cadillac and about $6,400 in his coat pocket.

Later, according to a court document, Chunn said that he had been selling about 9 ounces of cocaine a week. He said he was also selling Ecstasy and marijuana, and that he had at one point paid $9,450 for about a pound of cocaine.

In March 2003, Neeley pleaded guilty to felony drug and weapons charges, and was sentenced to three years in prison. After being paroled in March 2004, Neeley, who is married, had been living with his grandparents while caring for his four children, according to court records.

On June 6, a Little Rock narcotics detective learned that Neeley, also known as "Kilo," was selling cocaine from a purple Oldsmobile.

Narcotics detectives located him that night at an E-Z Mart at 16th Street and University Avenue, and had patrol officers pull him over.

In the Oldsmobile, the patrolmen found a plastic bag with about 3 ounces of cocaine, according to court documents.

Police and DEA agents arrested Brevard on March 1 after he wrecked his Cadillac Escalade while fleeing from them on Interstate 630. In the vehicle, police found about 15 ounces of cocaine, 11 ounces of crack cocaine, 7 ounces of marijuana and about $6,400 cash, court documents state.

According to court records, at one point a federal agent overheard Neeley and Chunn talking on the telephone about obtaining guns and "lightingup" a federal agent who’d been watching them.

In a March 30 court filing arguing that Neeley should be released from the Pulaski County jail during his trial, defense attorneys Mark Leverett and David I. Hammond wrote that the two men weren’t concerned by the agent, and thus had no intention of harming him. U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry L. Jones Jr. disagreed and ordered Neeley detained, writing "it is difficult to characterize the exchange as anything but a discussion of harming a law enforcement officer performing surveillance."

A Little Rock police official said the investigation into Chunn, Brevard and Neeley’s activities will continue, targeting people both above and below them in the drug supply chain.

"This is not the end of the investigation," the official said. "This is the tip of the iceberg."

This story was published Saturday, April 09, 2005


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2005, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.
This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.

A Ph.D. perspective on School Violence and Preventing It--

A Perspective on Preventing School Violence

by Mark D. Lerner, Ph.D.

President, AAETS


Not long ago the most severe problems encountered in our schools were students running in the halls, making excessive noise, cutting a line, talking out-of-turn, chewing gum or violating a dress code.

Today, we are faced with an increase in violence including assaults and gang activity. We are seeing an increase in the frequency of substance abuse, self-mutilation, suicide, abandonment of newborn babies, and serious injuries and deaths from automobile accidents. We are also contending with new types of violence including terrorist attacks, hostage-taking, snipers, murders, "hit lists," threatening graffiti, bomb scares and real bombs.

The tragedy at Red Lake High School in Minnesota is a painful reminder of what can happen in a school. Following, is my perspective on how we may prevent school violence.


What are the causes of school-based violence?

A wide spectrum of traumatic events are impacting our nation's schools. And, as a consequence, our school systems are being charged with the responsibility of responding to school-based crises. In recent years, school districts have been scrambling to develop comprehensive crisis response plans. We no longer question if a school will be faced with a tragedy, but when.

Many factors contribute to the causes of school violence. Research is helping us to understand the relationship between violent television programs, movies, music lyrics and violent behavior. Additionally, the interactive nature of violent computer and video games is being investigated.

We hear about the availability of guns and other weapons and we cannot ignore the data. During the last decade, nearly 80% of all violent deaths in schools were caused by guns (The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence).

There is a dramatic increase in alcohol and substance use among our children, peer pressure and gang involvement. We are learning about children who are tormented and teased, and then go on to harm themselves and others. We are seeing the effects of divorce, "latchkey kids," parents working long hours and an absence of parental supervision, training and example-setting. Today, there are relaxed curfews, a lack of respect for authority and a lack of family involvement with schools. There is a changing family structure as well - with a large number of single parent families, grandparents and extended family living in the home.

Today, there is a growing trend of violence related to race and/or religion. This is particularly disturbing in light of the fact that diversity in America is rapidly increasing. The extent to which these variables are related to the quantitative and qualitative changes in violent school-based crises will become more apparent with time and with further empirical investigation.

The inevitability of illness, accidents and loss may be accepted and even anticipated by schools that often view themselves as microcosms of our world. But why is there such a dramatic increase in deliberately-caused tragedies - those of intentional human design?

At the very core of our problem is a fundamental communication breakdown in families - the result, in large part, of an increasingly digital and mechanized world. We are spending less time communicating, teaching and modeling appropriate behavior with our children—we are losing the battle to the proliferation of electronic media in a rapidly changing, mechanized world (Lerner, 1999).

At the breakfast table, printed and televised media offer a daily dose of violence. Today, our children leave or avoid the dinner table or family room, opting for the new era in violent television, video and computer games, and Internet chat rooms. We used to know where our children went when they left our homes. Today, we don't know where they are when they are in their bedrooms.

Our children lack interpersonal communication, coping and problem-solving skills to meet the challenges of our new world - one reason why an increasing number of them act-out feelings of anger and frustration in dangerous attention-seeking ways, "self-medicate" with alcohol and other substances, and commit suicide at a higher rate than ever before.


How can we prevent school violence?

Today, our school systems are investing in expanded security forces, the installation of metal detectors and surveillance cameras, hand-held communication devices, "panic buttons," and computer "fire walls." Safety audits are becoming standard operating procedure. Although there are certainly benefits gained from taking these mechanical steps, we must address the root of the problem.

We need to help our children and adolescents to develop and enhance their communication and problem-solving skills. We must teach them how to actively listen and to empathize when relating with others. We must help our children to understand the importance of articulating their feelings about themselves and for others, and to know that it is okay to err on the side of caution when expressing concerns about others. We must regularly remind them that they can turn to their parents and/or school support personnel who will take the time to listen and respond to them. We must invest in the development of people skills (Lerner, 1999).

Far too often our children hear of disturbing ideation or plans prior to a tragedy and they do not know how to respond. It is not until the aftermath of a disaster that we see survivors interviewed and we hear them describe how the perpetrator had, in some way, suggested impending doom. In cases of adolescent suicide, more than 80% of kids who commit suicide tell someone, in some way, that they are going to end their life. Our children do not know what to do or where to turn with critical information.

We must work toward improving communication, through a multimodal approach, in order to prevent violent school tragedies. We can address emotional, cognitive, social, behavioral and physiological factors. For instance, we can help our children and adolescents to identify physiological changes in their bodies, which may precede or coincide with feelings of frustration and anger. We can help them to understand which of their behaviors/actions cause others to become frustrated and angry. We can teach them to become aware of and to identify negative self-statements - cognitions that generate feelings of frustration and anger. And, we can help our children to learn to replace self-defeating statements with positive coping statements. Behaviorally, we can model and espouse appropriate moral behavior, set limits and be consistent with our behavior. Ultimately, we can teach our children to show compassion and sincerity in relating with others.

We must help our children to understand that conflict is a natural part of interpersonal relationships. When we handle conflict well, it presents an opportunity to learn, to better understand ourselves and to generate creative solutions. When we handle conflict poorly, it can lead to violence.

We must help our children to make more adaptive, goal-directed decisions when faced with feelings of frustration. For example, we can teach them that it is okay to walk away from altercations or to take a few moments to "cool down." We can teach our children to express themselves assertively, to implement relaxation techniques, and to utilize conflict resolution and peer mediation skills. Interestingly, when we ask children and adolescents what they believe may help to reduce the frequency of school-based tragedies, they indicate that there needs to be more constructive opportunities for expression of feelings. On the other hand, we must keep in mind that conflict resolution techniques and peer mediation programs presuppose conflict.

How can we prevent school violence? We must reach our children when they are very young and invest in developing communication and problem-solving skills.

Today, we must view all members of the school family as being "at risk" and become aware of the "early warning signs" to identify individuals who may be at greater risk for engaging in violent behavior (see http://www.crisisinfo.org/schooldownload.htm). Let us all become hypervigilant, learn to err on the side of caution, and work toward preventing violent tragedies in our schools.

From Dr. Lerner's column at www.crisisinfo.org.

Hate Monger gets Just Due-- NY Times

April 7, 2005

40-Year Term for Supremacist in Plot on Judge
By JODI WILGOREN

HICAGO, April 6 - Matthew Hale, the white supremacist convicted last year of plotting to assassinate a federal judge, was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years in prison for what the sentencing judge described as an "egregious act against the rule of law in the United States."

"I consider Mr. Hale to be extremely dangerous," the judge, James T. Moody of Federal District Court, said in imposing the maximum sentence.

The crime, Judge Moody said, "undermines the judiciary's central role in our society and strikes at the very core of our government."

Mr. Hale, 33, leader of a white power movement now called Creativity, was found guilty of soliciting his security chief, an F.B.I. informant, to kill Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow, who was presiding over a trademark case involving his group's use of the name World Church of the Creator. The police focused on Mr. Hale's followers after Judge Lefkow's husband and mother were murdered in their home Feb. 28, but 10 days later a litigant unconnected to the movement, Bart A. Ross, confessed to the killings and committed suicide.

Acting as his own lawyer in a courtroom under extraordinary security, Mr. Hale made an anguished, rambling plea Wednesday for a shorter sentence, repeatedly declaring his innocence, asserting that he and Judge Lefkow were "on the same side" and suggesting that his high-profile prosecution might be partly responsible for Mr. Ross's "horrible crime against her family."

"What if these people are dead today because of these liars?" Mr. Hale asked, turning to face the prosecutors and F.B.I. agents seated behind him. "What if this guy thought to himself, 'I'm not the only one who wants her dead'?"

In a two-hour speech, Mr. Hale, who graduated from law school but was denied admission to the bar because of his racial views, quoted Thomas Jefferson, invoked Latin legal phrases, recited a couplet from "The Star-Spangled Banner" and stopped several times to swallow a sob. He attributed his conviction to his lawyer's shortcomings, insisted that he had refused the informant's overtures toward violence, compared the F.B.I. to the Gestapo and said he would rather be sent to a Siberian work camp than return to solitary confinement and "die in a hole."

"If she's here, if somebody could please tell her, tell this poor woman it's a lie," Mr. Hale said of Judge Lefkow, who did not attend the hearing.

"What punishment is appropriate for the innocent?" he asked. "I should be home by now. I should be apologized to."

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, denounced Mr. Hale as a domestic terrorist, and took particular offense at the suggestion that his office was in any way responsible for Mr. Ross's criminal acts.

"He shows he's not man enough to take responsibility for what he did," Mr. Fitzgerald said at a news conference after the hearing. "I put no stock in his claims, now crocodile tears, that he didn't do anything wrong."

Judge Lefkow, who has not yet returned to work, said in a telephone interview that she had skipped the sentencing so as not to distract attention from the proceedings, and that she spent the afternoon at the Chicago Police Department, thanking the officers who investigated the murders. She declined to respond to Mr. Hale's comments, saying only: "I respect the judge's decision. I'm sure that he took all the factors into account and made a fair decision."

Asked how she was doing, Judge Lefkow replied: "Carrying on day by day. I stay busy during the day; I have a lot to do. Sometimes nighttimes are harder."

Mr. Hale's mother, Evelyn Hutcheson, cried several times during her son's statement, declaring after the hearing, "Matt is the only one in that damn room who told the truth."

In addition to the metal detectors in the courthouse lobby, a second metal detector and a bomb-sniffing dog were outside Courtroom 1903, where Judge Moody, of the Northern District of Indiana, was sitting so as to avoid the conflict of a colleague of Judge Lefkow. At least four extra armed guards were inside..

Mr. Hale spoke passionately about growing up as the son of an East Peoria, Ill., police officer who never let him touch his badge lest he tarnish it. He said his graduation from the Southern Illinois University law school and Judge Lefkow's granting of the motion he wrote urging dismissal of the trademark case were the best days of his life. Judge Lefkow's decision was overturned on appeal, but Mr. Hale emphasized that she had originally supported his side, saying he had hardly wanted to kill her but had instead been looking forward to arguing a new motion before her.

He went over and over details of e-mail messages and taped conversations between himself and his security chief, arguing that in discussing the "Jew rat" he was referring to prosecutors, not Judge Lefkow, who is Episcopalian, and quoting himself as saying, "I cannot be a party to such a thing." Prosecutors contend that these protestations were intended to provide Mr. Hale deniability and that he nonetheless encouraged the security chief to act on his own.

"Mr. Hale is not concerned with actually taking someone's life, but how to do it and not get caught," Judge Moody said in handing down the sentence.

He called Mr. Hale "manipulative," "calculating" and "a highly educated, intelligent individual who surrounds himself with troubled individuals who feed his enormous ego."

While ignoring Mr. Hale's pleas for a shorter sentence, Judge Moody did grant him two other requests: keeping him in Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he has an electric typewriter, for six months so he can work on his appeal, and recommending that the rest of his term be served in Pekin, Ill., near his parents' homes in East Peoria.

Guns in Schools? What's the answer?- Ar. Democrat-Gazette

Expert on violence offers advice on how to tighten school security

BY CHARLIE FRAGO ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Thirteen more children died in school violence last year than during 1999, when school shootings by students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher at Colorado’s Columbine High School, retired Lt. Col. David Grossman told law enforcement and education officials Wednesday.

With 48 children dead from school violence in 2004, Grossman urged schools to be more alert and police officers to make protecting children a top priority.

The worst reaction would be to pretend there isn’t a threat, he said.

"Denial is your great, white fuzzy blanket you pull up over your eyes," Grossman, a former Army Ranger and Jonesboro resident, told the 120 participants from across the state at a one-day conference organized by the U.S. attorney’s office at the Holiday Inn Select in west Little Rock.

Alienated, violent kids make up one potential pool of killers. Another menace is homegrown or international terrorists who attack schools, as they have done in Russia, Pakistan and Turkey in recent years.

"That’s what they do to every nation, they come and kill the kids," said Grossman, author of several books, including 1995’s On Killing, nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. During his 23-year Army career, Grossman trained soldiers to overcome their inhibitions to kill.

Grossman has lectured around the world on the causes and prevention of violence. He heads Killology Research Group, a Jonesboro-based think tank.

He counseled students after the 1998 shootings at Westside Middle School near Jonesboro by 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson and 11-year-old Andrew Golden that killed four students — Britthney Varner, 11, Stephanie Johnson, 12, Natalie Brooks, 11, and Paige Ann Herring, 12 — and one teacher, Shannon Wright, 32. Nine children and a teacher were injured.

Grossman offered several tips to improve school security : Run lockdown drills so that students know where to go in case of violence. Report suspicious-sounding calls or strange visitors and carry digital cameras so that license plates and other identifying information can be easily obtained. And post armed security guards inside schools.

Referring to the March 21 school shooting in Red Lake, Minn., Grossman said that the unarmed security guard who was the first victim of Jeff Weise would have been better able to stop or deter the violence if he had carried a firearm. Weise, 16, went on to kill six more people at the school in addition to his grandfather and his grandfather’s companion.

To police officers, Grossman counseled chucking the 12-gauge shotguns that have traditionally been carried by police in favor of M-16 rifles. He also said that police officers should carry their pistols everywhere, especially when they’re off-duty.

"If someone killed your kids and you didn’t have the lifesaving tools of your trade to prevent it, you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself," he said.

Randy Lamons, an Independence County sheriff’s deputy and the school resource officer for the Southside School District near Batesville, came away impressed by Grossman’s message.

"I think he’s ahead of the curve. Lots of people are like ostriches sticking their heads in the sand over this," Lamons said. He said he planned to develop a lockdown drill with school officials when he returned to work.

Money from the federal Safe Neighborhoods Project paid for the conference. A joint effort between the U.S attorney’s office and local prosecutors, the project seeks to remove dangerous felons from the streets by prosecuting them under federal gun laws, which frequently lead to longer sentences without parole, said Cherith Beck, executive assistant to U.S Attorney Bud Cummins of the Eastern District of Arkansas.
This story was published Thursday, April 07, 2005
________________________________________
Copyright © 2005, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.
This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.

Police In Schools Article from THE JOURNAL NEWS

Police officers in public schools
From THE JOURNAL NEWS

By JENNIFER WEIL

(Original Publication: March 30, 2005)

WEST NYACK — On a recent Tuesday morning, 12th-grader Matt Marino approached Clarkstown Police Officer Lorri McGrath in the hallway of Clarkstown South and asked if he could talk with her privately sometime that day.
After discussing their schedules, they agreed on seventh period.

"See you then," McGrath said, as Marino disappeared into a throng of students making their way to class.

After about an hour of circulating through the school's corridors and exchanging greetings, McGrath returned to her office to prepare for late-day meetings with parents and students.

McGrath, 40, is one of five school resource officers the Clarkstown Police Department has stationed in the three school districts within town boundaries: Nanuet, Clarkstown and Nyack. The SROs — paid for by the town and the school districts — act as law enforcers, teachers, friends and confidants to the town's public school students.

SROs are also present in the county's five other public school districts. On Tuesday, an SRO was hired at Fieldstone Secondary School in Thiells to quell fighting.

For more than a decade, the National Association of School Resource Officers has trained thousands of law enforcement officers and school personnel in ways to reduce crime, gangs, drug abuse and violence in the schools.

The nonprofit association's president, John Kotnour, said his organization has been able to trace policing in the schools back as far as the 1950s. The model for today's school resource officers was implemented in the 1960s in Tucson, Ariz.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, such officers became an integral part of the schools throughout the country, but the most growth came in the late 1990s, Kotnour said.

"That's when the federal government started providing grants, and then the SRO program was able to be brought to smaller communities," said Kotnour, who is also an SRO in a Kansas school. The government offers three-year grants, and it is then up to the community to fund the program.

"The grant is kind of like seed money," he said.

Kotnour stressed that SROs were not a reaction to much-publicized tragedies such as the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. For some communities, it's a way to safeguard against such violence, he said.

"I was put in school not because there were problems, but to prevent the problems," he said.

Kotnour said it's difficult to gauge the effectiveness of SRO programs because often there are more incidents reported merely because there's an officer in the school.

Dan Gottfried, a school social worker who has done research on violence in the schools and has two children in the Nyack schools, said the presence of a police officer in the hallways might result in more fear than security.

"When you have an officer in the school, you are communicating to your students that this is not a safe place. That this is a place that needs to be protected," he said. "As soon as you communicate that to someone, their anxiety and concerns go up."

Clarkstown North Principal Dan Nicholson said when Officer Matt Barry first came to the high school in 2000, many of the parents were apprehensive.

"There was this great fear that this was going to be a police state — some of the teachers had the same attitude," he said of the 5-year-old program.

Nicholson said the feelings soon changed as Barry won the trust of students, parents and staff.

Last year, McGrath and Barry were given the Founders Day Award by the Clarkstown Parent- Teacher Association Council for their service in the community and the schools and to the children.

"I think that speaks to how they are perceived and valued in the school," said Clarkstown North PTA Co-president Robin Friehling, who has a son in the 10th grade.

Detective Sgt. Tim O'Neill, who is charge of Clarkstown's SRO program, said its success is evident from how well the officers interact with students and faculty.

"They have to be people who like to deal with people," he said. "They are in that school eight hours a day, and they are reacting with not only the kids, but the staff, the principal and the security there."

Being trustworthy is also a big part of the equation.

"The security end of it is really the minimal part," said O'Neill, who is also a Stony Point town councilman. "It's the trust that they build, and the caring."

McGrath agreed.

"Kids are very, very candid," said the former New York City police officer and mother of two. "Once you make that connection, they will open up to you. It's a thing that has to be built up."

When Clarkstown South junior Jason Berg and a friend, senior Justin Walpole, recently had a disagreement, they decided to talk to McGrath and see if she could work out the problem.

"She understands us," said Berg, 17. "She doesn't prejudge, and she hears both sides."

Berg and Walpole also said they spoke with McGrath because they felt more comfortable with her than a school guidance counselor because they knew her from the district's Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.

Clarkstown North junior Philippe Pierre said he thinks Barry is a real asset to the school.

"He can give you advice dealing with something at home or at school," the 16-year-old said. "He keeps everyone in line."

"There would definitely be more drama in the school," said Clarkstown North sophomore Dana Dauro. "No one's going to do something when he's here."

McGrath has been at Clarkstown South for five years. Friday is her last day because she is being promoted to detective.

"I am going to miss the students, teachers and faculty," she said. "I call this my school."

Good Lord- What is going on in Rio? NY Times

April 2, 2005

String of Street Shootings Kill 30, Including Youths, in Rio Suburb

By LARRY ROHTER

IO DE JANEIRO, April 1 - At least 30 people were killed in drive-by shootings in two gritty, working class suburbs late Thursday night and early Friday, in what the local authorities described as perhaps the worst blood bath in the history of this often violent metropolis.

At a news conference here on Friday, the secretary of public security for the state of Rio de Janeiro, Marcelo Itagiba, strongly hinted that the gunmen were military police officers angered by a recent campaign to crack down on police violence and corruption. Arrests of rogue officers may have incited others "who do not know how to use uniforms and badges" to take reprisals against the civilian population they are supposed to defend, he said.

"We have an operation to weed out bad cops," Mr. Itagiba added. "If this was the police, they will be the first ones to be exposed and unmasked, because they are not police officers, they are beasts."

Witnesses said the victims, who included a 7-year-old and some teenagers, were mowed down by four men in a white car. Some of the dead were shot as they stood outside a carwash while others were killed in front of a bar, at a plaza called Bible Square, running toward a highway for safety or as they were simply walking down the street on an unseasonably warm autumn night.

Earlier this week, two men in the same area, one a convicted drug dealer, were abducted from a bar and killed, with the head of one of them then being thrown over a wall into a police station. According to local news accounts, surveillance cameras showed eight men, seven in police uniforms, driving up to the station and dumping the bodies. On the basis of that information, eight military police officers were arrested on Wednesday.

Rights groups in Brazil and abroad have long criticized police forces here for their violent behavior, including dozens of summary executions. In recent years, accusations that the police offer protection to and take bribes from the drug gangs that control Rio's slums have also proliferated.

Until Thursday's mass killing, which local news organizations immediately began calling a "slaughter" and "massacre," the most notorious act of violence here had occurred in 1993. In that incident, 21 people were killed in a squatter slum, in what the authorities later said was retaliation for the killing of a group of police officers reportedly involved in drug trafficking there.

A few weeks before that, gunmen sprayed bullets at 45 street children who were sleeping outside a downtown church here, killing 8 of them. Military police officers were also accused of carrying out those killings, but three of the six charged were absolved by a jury more than a decade later.

The region where the shootings occurred, known as the Baixada Fluminense, is home to more than two million people and has a reputation for poverty and crime. During the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985, military and police death squads operated with impunity there, killing thieves and other petty criminals, sometimes at the behest of storeowners or security companies frustrated by the slow pace of the justice system.